“HBMA was one of a small group of organizations selected to assist CMS in developing industry consensus on the definition of ready and end-to-end testing for ICD-10. The key definitions developed by the HBMA ICD-10 committee were the starting point for this project. We believe HBMA members have more expertise in the operational ramifications of these definitions than any other organization. We fully understand the systemic problems that occurred with 5010 due to a lack of standardization, and we are hoping to avoid similar issues with the implementation of ICD-10.
“Now we need your help and input. CMS will be hosting listening sessions for this important project. If you can participate, we strongly encourage you to go to the HBMA website and review the definitions we developed and then lend your support for the critical need of requiring industry wide adherence to these definitions.
End-to-End Testing
“Section 1104 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the adoption of new standards, operating rules, and identifiers in the upcoming years. In addition, the ACA requires health plans to certify compliance that they have adequate documentation that they are compliant with standards and operating rules and that they have completed end-to-end testing with their trading partners.
“To implement and fulfill the Administrative Simplification requirements, covered entities must perform many steps, such as, assessing their health information systems to determine how to accommodate the new Administrative Simplification requirements, making changes and testing the changes to their internal systems, and testing their systems with external trading partners to ensure the continuous exchange of administrative information.
“Testing is essential to ensure compliance with the requirements adopted by the Secretary and ensure the uninterrupted flow of transactions with trading partners. Given the number of new requirements that covered entities will need to implement in the coming years, a process and tool to perform end-to-end testing is needed to aid the industry in meeting the compliance dates.
CMS Awards Contract to Develop Process for End-to-End Testing
“On September 28, 2012, CMS awarded National Government Services (NGS) with a one-year contract to develop a process and methodology for End-to-End testing of the Administrative Simplification Requirements based on industry feedback and participation. This process will be an industry wide "Best Practice" for End-to-End testing that lays the ground work for a more efficient and less time consuming method for health care provider testing of future standards, leading to more rapid adoption of the future standards. While the goal is a process that can be used across all Administrative Simplification Requirements, ICD-10 will be the test case used during the pilot.
“Industry participation is essential to this project, and industry can participate by becoming an industry collaboration partner, providing feedback in industry listening sessions, or as a volunteer to pilot the end-to-end testing process.”
More information and a schedule of the listening sessions are available here.
There are several other efforts which focus only on the immediate need to develop ICD-10 end to end testing processes, including the HIMSS-WEDI ICD-10 pilot and several WEDI workgroup efforts; as well as some localized efforts in several states.