University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), an alliance representing 90 percent of the nation’s nonprofit academic medical centers, has expanded its agreement with 3M Health Information Systems to offer advanced 3M solutions for ICD-10 transition planning and clinical documentation improvement. 3M software and consulting services will provide UHC hospitals with actionable information that can be used to prepare for the new ICD-10 national coding standard, improve clinical outcomes, and obtain appropriate reimbursement.

The agreement includes the 3M DRG Assurance Program and the 3M Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) System, 3M’s clinical documentation improvement solutions, which have been expanded with ICD-10 concepts and terms and customized to meet the specific needs of academic medical centers. UHC members also will have access to 3M’s new ICD-10 modeling and code translation services, clinical documentation assessment services, and claims impact analysis services, all specifically developed to help organizations prepare for ICD-10, which is scheduled to be implemented in October 2013.

“Helping UHC members improve clinical documentation and coding continues to be a high priority for both UHC and 3M, as it has been since the partnership began in 2007. 3M’s ICD-10 services and CDI System software are welcome additions to our partnership agreement and will help us ensure continued success for UHC members,” said Dan Skiles, director of payer relations at UHC.

“Working now to improve clinical documentation will help UHC alliance members not only prepare for ICD-10, but also capture information to meet the demands of new pay for performance initiatives,” said Sandeep Wadhwa, MD, chief medical officer and vice president, Coding and Reimbursement for 3M Health Information Systems.

3M Health Information Systems has more than 15 years of experience in developing and maintaining ICD-10 products and services around the world. In the United States, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Center for Health Statistics, 3M developed the ICD-10 Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) and the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs) and Reimbursement Maps.

More than 800 hospitals have relied on the 3M DRG Assurance Program to improve clinical documentation through complete and accurate capture of a patient’s severity of illness and risk of mortality in the medical record. 3M DRG Assurance clients typically see an increase in case mix index of 2 percent to 4 percent, with an average 4:1 financial return in the first year of the program. The 3M CDI System, a unique leave-behind software tool, offers clinical documentation guidelines and edits interactively during concurrent chart review, helping organizations to sustain financial improvements and promote productivity gains for documentation review specialists.

For more information about 3M consulting services and software for ICD-10 transition planning and clinical documentation improvement, visit www.3Mhis.com/drgassurance or call 800-367-2447.

About UHC

The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), formed in 1984, is an alliance of 113 academic medical centers and 253 of their affiliated hospitals, representing approximately 90% of the nation’s nonprofit academic medical centers. UHC offers its members specific programs and services to improve clinical, operational, financial, and patient safety performance. The mission of UHC is to create knowledge, foster collaboration, and promote change to help members succeed. For more information, visit www.uhc.edu.

About 3M Health Information Systems

3M Health Information Systems delivers comprehensive software and consulting services to help organizations worldwide improve clinical documentation, quality, and financial performance across the healthcare continuum. 3M offers integrated solutions for medical records coding, ICD-10, dictation and transcription, speech recognition, clinical documentation improvement, quality, and data standardization and vocabularies, effectively meeting the industry’s changing needs. With more than 25 years of healthcare experience and expertise, 3M works as a trusted and stable business partner to provide reliable implementation, training, and support services. www.3Mhis.com

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3M media contacts:Price Houns AssociatesMollie Houns, 952-920-6951or3M Public Relations andCorporate CommunicationsMary Kokkinen, 651-733-8806orUHC media contact:Linda Bosy, 630-954-2808bosy@uhc.edu