Harris wins deal to accelerate VA’s search of health records codes
- By David Hubler
- May 10, 2012
Harris Corp. will upgrade the Veterans Affairs Department’s ability to access and verify health care diagnosis codes under a $2 million contract, the company’s May 10 announcement said.
The VA Office of Information and Technology award calls for Harris to enhance the process of searching diagnosis codes, which supports the VA as it transitions from the International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision (ICD-9) to the new ICD-10 standard. It is the second VA contract win the company has announced this week.
Harris will focus on VA encounter forms, which document relevant patient data, including demographics, allergies, clinical reminders and problems during an appointment, while also collecting procedure, provider and diagnostic data about an appointment.
To facilitate the selection of ICD-10 codes during an appointment, Harris will develop a search tool designed to find the most appropriate ICD-10 codes among the thousands of increasingly specific, newly available codes.
"By providing enhanced search functionality to access newly mandated diagnosis codes for all [Veterans Health Administration] Encounter Forms, Harris will help VA users save time typically invested in entering data into forms. This will result in reduced cycle time, costs and errors," Jim Traficant, president of Harris Healthcare Solutions said in the announcement.
The Veterans Health Administration will require that its business partners, including some VA healthcare facilities, send and receive ICD-10 CM codes for all paper and electronic medical outpatient claims, as well as ICD-10 CM and ICD-10 PCS codes for all inpatient claims on or before the congressionally mandated CMS compliance date.
Harris Corp., of Melbourne, Fla., ranks No. 13 on Washington Technology’s 2011 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.
About the Author
David Hubler is the former print managing editor for GCN and senior editor for Washington Technology. He is freelance writer living in Annandale, Va.