The transition to the Tenth Revision to the International Classification of Diseases—a.k.a. ICD-10—is one of the biggest challenges facing the medical community this year. Actually, it’s one of the biggest challenges of the last 30 years, because that’s how long it’s been since ICD got a makeover of this magnitude. Starting October 1, 2015, virtually all medical providers in the US must use diagnosis codes from this brand new code set. Otherwise, they won’t get paid. Oh yeah, and there are five times as many codes to choose from. Take a second and think about what would happen if suddenly the alphabet exploded to 130 letters.Yeah, it’s pretty serious stuff, and many medical professionals are shaking in their boots just thinking about the switch. But the lead-up to ICD-10—especially the prep work—doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. As the physical therapy-centric site ICD10forPT.com proves, it’s possible to make ICD-10 kinda sorta fun. Here’s how:
1. Brain-busting quiz questions
Everyone loves a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. Get out your pie pieces and turn our ICD-10 quiz into a quick lunchtime contest. In addition to learning a heck of a lot, you might just have fun—or at the very least, earn some bragging rights to toss around the office.
2. Hilarious illustrations
Look at that there macaw. It’s wearing boxing gloves. Now before you shake your head at the silliness of Mr. Macawmad Ali, understand that it is an artistic rendering of an actual ICD-10 code: W61.12 Struck by macaw. With 68,000 ICD-10 codes, there are bound to be a few—a lot, actually—that seem completely nonsensical, or at least only relevant when it comes to the Darwin Awards. That is what makes our ICD-10 or Mumbo Jumbo? game so darn entertaining—and tricky.
3. Apocalyptic film references
This site focuses on ICD-10 regulations, rules, policies, and best practices—but we know our popular culture, too. And every so often, we feel inclined to prove it. So, peruse the ICD10forPT site and see if you can find all our references to Hollywood’s most famous doomsday stories. We bet you’ll crack a smile or two.
4. Entertaining educational resources
Looking for an ICD-9 vs. ICD-10 comparison? In need of a preparation checklist for your practice’s transition to the new codes? Look no further than our ICD10forPT blog, downloadable resources, and webinar. As a rehab therapist, you’re accustomed to super-dense Medicare regulations and insurance carrier policies. Reading that stuff is enough to make you go cross-eyed—and then it’d be really hard to document patient care. That’s why we write everything in plain English. Our educational materials take all that weighty, jargony stuff and deliver it in digestible and understandable formats.
5. Real answers from a real expert
After you’re done with all the fun, if you’re still scratching your head over some lingering ICD-10 questions, don’t fret. We’ve got you covered. Using our simple submit-a-question form, you can ask our resident expert (WebPT Co-Founder and PT Heidi Jannenga) anything on your mind—related to ICD-10, that is.
Okay, obviously, all of these things are shamelessly self-promoting our new website ICD10forPT.com. But there’s a reason we’re plugging it so hard: it’s going to seriously help physical, occupational, and speech therapists transition to ICD-10. We never create things simply for the fun of it; although we must admit, this site was pretty darn fun to create. We develop topic-driven sites like functionallimitation.org, physicaltherapyemr.net, and ICD10forPT.com because we want to do everything in our power to keep those in our industry informed. That way they can be better in business, while providing exemplary patient care.
