Opinion: How long does it take to code in ICD-10?

Staff -

In a recent blog post, Daniel Ginsberg, MD, an internal medicine physician practicing in Tacoma, Wash., discussed the troubles he continually experiences after last year's transition to ICD-10.

With the most recent updates, Dr. Ginsberg now has more than 155,000 diabetes diagnoses with which to contend. "Every diabetic medication I reorder will have to be changed as they are associated with a diagnosis," he wrote.

Factoring in all his patients, Dr. Ginsberg estimated he'll have to make nearly 1,000 changes. "Assuming it takes me 30 seconds each time (I'm probably a lot faster than most of my colleagues), that's over eight hours, so a full work day," he wrote. "Multiply that across all the primary care doctors and that's a lot of time."

Dr. Ginsberg concluded by stating his ongoing frustrations with ICD-10, claiming he "think[s] there are many better ways to spend [physicians'] time."

Dr. Ginsberg's blog post is also viewable on ACP Internist's blog.

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