Massachusetts Health Data Consortium Launches State-Wide ICD-10 Collaboration Project

Waltham, Massachusetts (February 14, 2013) - The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium - a statewide consortium of health care providers, health plans, industry associations, government agencies, and health technology services companies - today announced the launch of its ICD-10 Project to reduce the significant time and costs associated with ICD-10 compliance for the state’s health care industry.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has set Oct. 1, 2014 as the deadline for health care providers and payers to comply with new International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding standards. ICD-10 is a revision to the ICD-9 system used by health care providers to classify and code all diagnoses, symptoms and procedures documented in clinical care in the United States. This revision encompasses more than 68,000 diagnostic codes, compared to the 13,000 found in ICD-9. It also includes twice as many clinical categories and introduces alphanumeric category classifications for the first time.

“Each of our members faces enormous preparation, testing and implementation challenges that are unique to their organizations,” said Denny Brennan, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. “Through the Consortium, they will minimize the time and cost spent on the challenges they share. Collaboration creates economies of scale, minimizes needless rework and redundancy in preparation and testing, and reduces the substantial financial, technical, and operating risks associated with failing to meet the deadline for compliance.”

About the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, founded in 1978, is a not-for-profit organization working to address the myriad innovations in technology, data and analytics, health care delivery, finance, and public policy that will advance the value of health care in the Commonwealth for years to come. Its membership spans the state’s health care providers, health plans, life sciences organizations, industry associations and not-for-profits, state and federal health agencies, and healthcare technology and services organizations. Visit www.mahealthdata.org .

Contact Information

Arleen Coletti

Director of Membership

Massachusetts Health Data Consortium

(1) (781) 419-7815

acoletti@mahealthdata.org