WellPoint Selects Cerner To Launch ICD-10 Business Continuity Test Program

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 1, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner (Nasdaq:CERN) announces it has been selected by WellPoint, Inc., the second largest health benefits company in the United States, to join forces on a project to test ICD-10 business continuity. As a selected electronic medical records (EMR) and Revenue Management supplier, Cerner will conduct thorough ICD-9 to ICD-10 end to end testing with WellPoint for a select set of clients.

The ICD-10 transition can significantly impact the overall revenue of health care organizations. The goal of the project is to prove that the end to end process will work within all the systems.

"Early testing with natively coded ICD-10 claims provided insights into legitimate shifts in reimbursement with certain methodologies, changes in behavior of system / business rules, and changes to analytics," said Ian Bonnet, Vice President with WellPoint, which serves approximately 36 million people through their affiliated health plans and approximately 67 million people through subsidiaries.

"Cerner's footprint in clinical systems and revenue cycle support made them a natural choice for collaborating on ICD-10 testing and we're excited about the insights both organizations and our shared stakeholders will receive," said Ian Bonnet.

"Participating in this project will allow us to test our integrated clinical and financial systems prior to the ICD-10 transition to ensure we're ready to support our clients through the event," said Rick Heise, Cerner vice president and executive sponsor of the project. "With an estimated 40-50% reduction in coding productivity being predicted, our clients need to know they can count on the workflow of Cerner systems involved in physician documentation, medical coding, billing and interface to communicate with, their clearinghouses and payers."

In order to test for business continuity, the project will run through the following steps to assure that end to end processes work within the systems of all stakeholders:

• Health care providers chosen to be part of the pilot will select cases that have been submitted and paid coded in ICD-9.
• The providers will then re-code the cases in ICD-10.
• Cerner will be able to take that information through its systems, out through a clearinghouse and to WellPoint the payer and back to Cerner through a report containing 835 data.
• Cerner ^® solutions involved in testing will include Financial Hub, Patient Accounting and all systems involved in medical coding, billing and interface to clearinghouses.

Providers are currently being selected and the testing process should begin towards the end of 2013.

1 2 3 Next › Last »