ICD-10

[pupquilt]

Hi. New to this site today. Went searching for what hospice nurses are learning about ICD-10 and its effect on our work. I am nervous about it and the webinars I have attended make me more nervous. Unfortunately my administration doesn't think it will be but a bump in the road. We have had no training other than what we have had time to attend to in our less busy times--mostly webinars. Much of it is not specific to hospice so we've gotten lots of info related to home health which bills much differently than hospice. I hope my administration is right, but I'm nervous.

How's it going for you all? Have you had any training? Am I just nervous Nellie?

[BerryhappyRN, MSN, RN]

Why are you nervous? Do you do coding or handle finances?

We have had lots of training, educating and explanations about "capturing" all illnesses as to best reflect the patient to maximize Medicare reimbursement, but I don't find that intimidating. Our physician explained that we are the FINAL country in the world (I think he said final) to adopt ICD-10, and although other countries use it to track diseases, accidents, and illnesses, the US primarily will use it to control reimbursement. We are also expecting that although hospice currently only is responsible for meds related to the terminal diagnosis, because we are also now "capturing" all other illnesses for ICD-10, eventually most likely hospice will also have to cover all meds a hospice patient is taking. So in the future, if we have them for end stage COPD we will not only cover COPD meds, we may also have to cover and mange their RA, HTN, A-FIB, etc, which we do not have to do currently.

Don't be nervous, if you can handle suffering and death DAILY, no stupid computer program can hurt you!