CMS recently released a social media recording designed to create a general awareness and understanding of ICD-10.

Despite the many service offerings available that purport to provide ICD-10 training, the fact of the matter is that the most effective means of training and preparing for ICD-10 is to engage in the discipline of self-learning. These courses being promoted to provide ICD-10 education to physicians are actually ill prepared to provide meaning education given the fact physicians tune out after ten minutes. These training courses for physicians are generally 30 plus minutes in length and even if the physician actually listens to the entire course, he/she probably only grasped the first 5 to 10 minutes of the material.

Best practice for physician ICD-10 training is to provide real time knowledge sharing and raising of awareness of the workings of ICD-10, emphasizing the fact the practice of medicine is not changing. Instead, what is truly changing is the reporting of the practice of medicine and the best means of preparing for ICD-10 is adhering to best practice standards of clinical documentation that includes telling an accurate account of the patient story with specificity in diagnoses including provisional that is congruent with the History of Present Illness, physical exam, supporting test results, plan for further work up and clinical reasoning. This will serve as a strong foundation for physician engagement in understanding, appreciating and embracing ICD-10, the latter being the controlling factor in whether physicians will be best prepared for documentation under ICD-10 when October 1 rolls around.

Just some food for thought