WSJ: IT companies could get boost from health care coding switch

The Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch: IT Companies Stand To Gain From Health Care's 'Y2K' Problem
Some venture-backed information-technology companies that serve hospitals and health insurers are getting a boost from what analysts call the "Y2K" of health care. The problem is caused by a coming change in the coding system used to bill for medical procedures. Most industrialized nations, such as Canada, France and the U.K., switched to the newest system, ICD-10, years ago, but the U.S. lags behind. U.S. health-care providers and payers can't wait much longer, however, since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has mandated that they move from ICD-9 to ICD-10 by Oct. 1, 2013 (Gormley, 2/22).  

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.