: ICD-10 News: CMS Announces More Listening Sessions

Listening Sessions for End-to-End Testing 

CMS is pleased to announce additional industry listening sessions hosted by National Government Services (NGS) to develop common definitions and best practices for testing of the Administrative Simplification Requirements. National Government Services (NGS) will then use ICD-10 as a business case to validate a defined universal testing process that can be used throughout the health care industry.

CMS and NGS look forward to receiving insights from:

Small Providers on January 24
Large Providers on January 15 and 29
Vendors on January 17 and 31
Payers on January 23 and February 5 

The small provider sessions are geared toward organizations with fewer than 100 employees; large provider sessions are for those with 100 or more employees.

Based on feedback received from industry so far, CMS and NGS have revised proposed definitions of key terms as follows:

• End-to-End testing. A focused process within a defined area, using new or revised applicable products, operating rules or transactions, throughout the entire business and/or clinical exchange cycle, for the purpose of measuring operational predictability and readiness. The End-to-End testing process should be performed in an environment which mirrors actual production as closely as possible, confirming the validation of performance metrics and analytics (reporting). 
• Readiness. A state of preparedness in which an Entity has completed verification and validation of applicable policies, procedures, guidelines, laws, regulations, and contractual arrangements with expected results. Additionally, entities will demonstrate readiness by completing internal documentation, establishing communication mechanisms and validation with external trading partners, training of appropriate personnel, scheduled deployments, and software migration for each regulatory requirement. 
• Compliance. A demonstrated adherence to those policies, procedures, guidelines, laws, and regulations to which the business process is subject in advance of, by, and continued support after, the regulatory implementation date. 

To learn more, please visit the end-to-end testing page on the CMS website.

Keep Up to Date on ICD-10 

Visit the CMS ICD-10 website for the latest news and resources to help you prepare for the October 1, 2014, deadline.

For practical transition tips:
Read recent ICD-10 email update messages
Access the ICD-10 continuing medical education modules developed by CMS in partnership with Medscape.