May 2012 Newsletter
5010 Transition Recap
The road to 5010 has been a long one, and not without a few bumps. All in all, however, it’s been a satisfying journey, since our diligent preparations helped us to avoid many of potholes that disabled others in the industry.
Since the end of 2007, the portion of our collective consciousness dedicated to ANSI 5010 has steadily grown. For the last few years, the impending transition from ANSI 4010 to 5010 has been at the forefront of Quadax EDI activity, either driving our actions or being considered in light of other actions—even those actions that on the surface may have seemed unrelated. By 2011, 5010 and ICD-10 were the primary topics of discussion at our Annual User Group meetings; in fact, we deemed these of such value to our clients that we took the meetings to you, staging several regional meetings in order to reach the greatest number of client representatives with feature presentations by Quadax personnel reviewing what you should expect during these monumental transitions. As you’ve read articles in the corporate newsletter, our Connections newsletter, and updates on the client Portal, you’ve probably understood that the conversion from 4010 to 5010 was an all-encompassing, division-wide endeavor for Quadax EDI Services, involving individuals in every department.
Our goal was to adhere to all requirements, maintaining compliance with all laws and regulations while continuing to provide excellent service to our clients, with as little disruption to your business operation as possible.
We recently surveyed EDI clients to learn your perspective on the whole experience. We opened the survey by asking respondents to rate their overall experience as it related to their information system vendor, their internal processes, and Quadax/Xpeditor. Results were fairly mixed regarding information system vendors, more consistent with regard to their internal processes, and mostly favorable with regard to Quadax/Xpeditor. Eighty-two percent of respondents rated their Quadax/Xpeditor 5010 experience as Excellent or Very Good.
We also asked about specific strategies employed, such as the gradual conversion of payer transmissions beginning in 2011, Note Edits that warned users about 5010 requirements in advance of a payer’s conversion, and our enhanced Payer List showing conversion status and cutover dates throughout the transition. We received very good marks in each of these areas, as well.
The key to the deployment of each of those strategies, and to the success of the transition overall, was the wealth of information we made available every step of the way. We asked clients to rate the communication they received from Quadax on this topic, and also to indicate which sources of information they reviewed.
Eighty-eight percent of respondents rated our communication as Excellent or Very Good. The most popular sources of information among clients were the individual e-mail and Portal announcements we distributed prior to each payer transmission’s conversion. Following close behind were the 5010 Information page on the Portal, verbal information delivered by account representatives, and articles in the Connections newsletter. Also scoring very well were 2011 User Conference presentations, which were available to all clients on the Portal, even to those unable to attend one of the regional sessions.
The $64,000 question, of course, was all about dollars – we were eager to know whether or not our clients’ cash flow suffered at all as a result of the transition. Despite our best efforts, there were some hiccups, especially subsequent to January 1, because of several payers’ inability to process claims appropriately. We fell onto our contingency plan regularly in those early days, reverting to 4010 as necessary to get claims adjudicated to cause as little disruption as possible to our clients. While any disruptions to cash flow warrant investigation and resolution, we were pleased to see that so many of you did not experience significant upsets.
We haven’t yet reached the end of this road, as there are some payers still working through their own conversion issues. As we continue the drive, we’ll continue to take note of what works, what doesn’t, and how we can do our very best for our clients at every mile marker. We will keep the channels of communication open; we’d like to hear from more of you about your experiences. If you didn’t have a chance to respond to our survey its first time out, you may be receiving a second request for your feedback. Or, you may contact me directly to request a survey by e-mail. We also invite you to begin or join a conversation in the Community Forums on the Portal.