In this episode, Victoria Hernandez, Senior Coding Analyst at BESLER, provides us a preview of the next Hospital Finance Academy Webinar, Updates on ICD-11: What You Need to Know, live on Wednesday, May 21, at 1 PM ET.
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Learn how to listen to The Hospital Finance Podcast® on your mobile device.Highlights of this episode include:
- How this upcoming webinar will be different than last year
- Resources or references that highlight the 2025 updates
- Most challenging 2025 ICD-11 changes
Nancy Robinson: Hi, everyone. This is Nancy Robinson, and I am your guest host today. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re excited to have Victoria Hernandez with us again. Victoria is a Senior Coding Analyst here at BESLER, and in this episode, she’ll be giving us a preview of our next Hospital Finance Academy Webinar, Updates on ICD-11: What You Need to Know that’s happening live on Wednesday, May 21st, at 1 PM Eastern. Welcome back, Victoria. It’s great to have you with us again.
Victoria Hernandez: Thank you, Nancy. I’m happy to be here again. We try to always make it fun and educational, right?
Nancy: That is true, and that’s great. So, let’s go ahead and dive in. So, this is your second time presenting on ICD-11. I believe you first introduced the topic late last year. Can you talk a little bit about how this upcoming webinar will be different? What new content or goals should the audience expect?
Victoria: Yes, Nancy. Sure. The last time we had the ICD-11 topic, we focused mainly on preparations for ICD-11. We compared the two code sets for ICD-10 versus ICD-11. So, we did a side-by-side comparison. And we also assigned true cases using both ICD-10 and ICD-11. So that was also a very informative webinar. Well, since then, the World Health Organization, WHO, W-H-O, they announced most recently these specific updates for 2025. So that’s our current year. That’s actually the latest announcement as far as ICD-11 goes. There’s a lot of good information to share there with those updates, and some are even brand new as far as ICD coding is concerned.
So, in addition to the latest updates, which some refer to as 2025 edition, we’ll also be touching base on the different features, purpose, and impact of ICD-11, also keeping in mind these new updates for 2025. We’ll then revisit some tips and best practices for that smooth transition that everyone can benefit from, right? So, it’s like having a checklist just to make sure we’re all prepared and successful, of course. And also, I always think it’s a good idea to have hands-on coding practice. So as far as ICD-11 coding, yes, we’ll be doing a few cases on that for this next webinar.
Nancy: Wow. That sounds great. It’s nice that our audience will not only get updated info for 2025 but also tips on how to prepare and even some hands-on coding practice. Will you be sharing any specific resources or references that highlight those 2025 updates?
Victoria: Yes, most definitely. So first, we’ll make sure that everyone gets that link that directs them straight to the main source, which is the World Health Organization. Of course, since the announcement came directly from them, it would be ideal to just get that latest information at that front line. I must share, though, it is pleasantly convenient to find those additional supporting resources once you’re in their actual website, especially since the information that’s being shared, it’s all new and fresh off the press. It’s pretty user-friendly, it’s super informative, and also engaging whenever I see those related links provided to us. So, the World Health Organization has made it easy for the reader to access this additional information.
And of course, those are the ones that’s supporting the details in their announcement. For example, with the 2025 update, they talk about the multilingual expansion and support available. So, I know we already have lots of languages available on ICD-11 today, but yet we’re still expanding. And the support is also available for everyone who needs to access it. Well, they’ve sure made it available for us and provided all those related links. And it’s really providing that extra detail on each topic. For example, the many languages that’s already available and whatever’s associated with those languages, the updates and support.
So, they provide us the links also for general ICD-11, just their website. And there’s also links to ICD-11 implementation, which is also part of useful information that we covered at our last webinar. Then also for just straight frequently asked questions, our FAQs, they also gave us a link on that. The ICD-11 frequently asked questions. So those are helpful too, since those questions, they may apply to both pre-and post-implementation, so everyone can definitely tune in and access that document. We can always learn best practices from other countries who went ahead of us and are actually live on ICD-11 already today because, thinking about it later down the line, the United States will be in their shoes. So, we’ll be sharing our best practices to the next countries to go live.
We’ll also be providing the attendees with a link to the ICD-11 coding tool. That’s an important one for sure. And a lot of people still don’t know everyone can access that ICD-11 tool today. So, if they’d like, they can go in there and practice. It’s free. It’s available to the public. So especially since the 2025 updates include these new features, like some of the features included are advanced national language processing, like NLP, for example. They include ongoing multilingual expansion and support, as we mentioned. They also have spelling corrections. So, considering the different languages that are now included, there’s that validating the correct spelling. And it’s good to know that all these updates and announcements have been integrated with the ICD-11. So, the coding tool should, of course, reflect those improvements. And of course, I always encourage everyone to practice in the ICD-11 coding tool.
Nancy: Wow. I totally agree. Having everything in one place with direct links and attachments really do help. It’s more efficient, and it makes it easier to stay focused, especially when dealing with big updates like these. So now that the 2025 ICD-11 changes are here, is there one update you would say stands out as the most challenging?
Victoria: Well, I think I would have to say yes. There’s one that comes to mind especially. And well, what’s interesting is that I’m actually viewing it as both a potential challenge but also a positive impact as far as my personal and professional growth.
Nancy: Wow. Okay. That is interesting. Can you walk us through that a little bit more? What makes it stand out?
Victoria: Sure. And bear with me. I promise you it’ll make more sense once I explain. So, the change in 2025 that came to mind when you asked me which one I may find challenging that one would be this new module that covers traditional medicine. So traditional medicine, when we hear that, it’s usually associated with folk medicine or pretty much our own cultural beliefs, our own personal cultural theories, cultural practices; that’s what’s being used for our health and well-being maintenance. So, some examples that I could think of would be plant extracts or anything related to plants. Those herbs, natural therapy.
And the one that I believe is going to be really new with ICD-11 are those spiritual therapies. So that’s actually commonly practiced in both Asia and Africa today. And I’m sure the other continents as well, but Asia and Africa, they’re very active with that. So, part of the change for 2025 is a new module that’s been added covers specifically conditions linked to traditional medicine. So, this new module will be tracking those services that fall under that category for traditional medicine. And there’s three specific traditional medicine systems mentioned for 2025, and that’s the part in the updates that I think may be challenging at first.
And I’m saying that because I’m not familiar or well-versed in the systems announced for 2025. For example, one of the systems originated in India more than 3,000 years ago, and that one takes a natural approach in every angle of their health and well-being. Then there’s another one, which is also from India, South India, and that one has that holistic approach considering humans are one with nature. So, we’ll be covering them at the webinar and the other ones as well. Well, I thought it would be challenging initially because it’s new, so that’s it because it’s new, and we tend to want to learn more information, get it accurate, and getting the details of the whole traditional system of healing and get familiarized with the documentation associated with it that’s actually interesting and understandably challenging in the beginning, especially if it’s not being performed day-to-day.
But on the side note that I also mentioned the positive impact, right? So, on my personal and professional growth. And that’s because I’ll be learning about these different cultures and the various conditions, symptoms, and the holistic approach in treatment or therapy towards those conditions. I’m looking forward to that, actually. So, I think that would be informative and super interesting, especially since traditional medicine now is being documented and included in ICD-11, just like conventional medical conditions.
Nancy: Wow. That’s actually really helpful to hear. I can see how something like that could feel overwhelming at first but can be rewarding in the end. Is there anything else you’d like to share as a preview for the May 21st webinar?
Victoria: Yes. As I mentioned, we will be performing hands-on ICD-11 coding. And I actually thought it would be a good idea to assign specific ICD-11 codes to those conditions recognized under the traditional medicine, since that’s the latest and the greatest from the 2025 updates. So, the more we practice, the less difficult it would be later. I’m thinking.
Nancy: Great. Thank you so much for joining us today, Victoria, and for giving us this sneak peek of the upcoming Academy webinar. Updates on ICD-11: What You Need to Know. Again, that’s happening live on Wednesday, May 21st, at 1 PM Eastern. And as a bonus, CEU credit is available. Thanks again, Victoria.
Victoria: Thank you, Nancy.
Nancy: And thanks to all of you for listening to this episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. We’ll see you next time. [music]
[music] This concludes today’s episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.com/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of BESLER | SMART ABOUT REVENUE, TENACIOUS ABOUT RESULTS.
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