Minnesota ICD-10 Collaborative selects Charter Solutions, Inc. to lead ICD-10 effort

MINNEAPOLIS, April 27, 2011 - The Minnesota ICD–10 Collaborative announced today that it has selected Charter Solutions, Inc., to provide support to its members in their transition to using new, more precise diagnosis and procedure codes for the healthcare industry. ICD–10 stands for International Classification of Diseases version 10.

The Minnesota ICD–10 Collaborative is one of the first of its kind in the country to respond to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mandated usage of ICD–10 codes by October 1, 2013.

"This collaboration demonstrates Minnesotas healthcare leadership in tackling this major healthcare system change initiative," said Mark Jahn, Vice President of Healthcare at Charter Solutions.

The Minnesota ICD–10 Collaborative so far consists of 21 regional health plans and healthcare providers. The groups goal is to work together to identify and implement common approaches and best practices for ICD–10 so that the transition is as efficient and effective for all stakeholders–patients, providers and health plans–as possible.

"I am proud of Charters healthcare expertise and long history of facilitating work groups," said Bill Leonard, Co–CEO of Charter Solutions, Inc. "We are excited and honored to be chosen by the ICD–10 Collaborative and look forward to facilitating this important regional effort."

Many healthcare industry experts view the transition to using the new ICD–10 diagnosis and ICD–10–PCS as one of the most significant changes to the healthcare system in decades. There are approximately 10 times more codes used in ICD–10 than in ICD–9, which was developed in the 1970s.

The updated and added codes provide more specific diagnosis and treatment information. They are designed to improve quality measurements and patient safety and to provide more precise evaluation of medical processes and outcomes. The United States is the last of the industrial countries to implement ICD–10.

"The ICD–10 Collaborative selected Charter Solutions as its facilitator on this project because the company has demonstrated thought leadership and work group facilitation expertise. It is important that health plans and (healthcare) providers work together in order to maximize the new ICD–10 related business and clinical benefits," said Shelagh Kalland, Director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.

Charter Solutions will provide committee, workgroup, meeting facilitation, a secure ICD–10 Collaboration member website, ICD–10 subject matter expertise and related services. Individual healthcare organizations will be able to contract with Charter Solutions directly for ICD–10 project specific work.

 

Charter Solutions CTO Michael Krouze is a Keynote Speaker at the IT Architecture Regional Conference in San Diego, CA

Michael Krouze presented “Enterprise Decision Management: A Cornerstone in Agile Architecture,” in which he said,“Agile architectures allow systems to react to business changes with minimum effort and impact on core system code. Enterprise decision management is a key element in the creation of agile architectures.” His session will draw on real-life examples to illustrate how enterprise decision management tools and approaches act as enablers in creating agile architectures, whether you are using new techniques ( e.g., SOA) or evolving legacy architectures into agile ones.

The IT Architecture Regional Conference is the premier event in Southern California that addresses the pressing needs of IT architects today. It has over 30 seminars and four tracks separated by specialty: Enterprise, Software, Infrastructure, and Fundamentals. Architects of all levels can take their skills to the next level.

This event is run by the IASA (www.iasahome.org) and included presentations by Dave Chappell, VP and Chief Technologist of SOA at Oracle Corporation; Scott Ambler, Practice Leader of Agile Development at IBM; and Fred Waskiewicz, Director of Standards at Object Management Group.

 

Charter Solutions, Inc. announces it has signed a business relationship with iWay Software to become a systems integration partner for the implementation of iWay software.

About iWay Software
iWay Software provides rapid integration solutions that help companies large and small meet new business challenges without making their vital information investments obsolete. iWay's proven products, partners, and professional services are key to quickly and efficiently transforming business processes by integrating existing data, applications, and environments with new systems and applications, including all popular ERP, CRM, and SCM application packages; messaging technologies such as MQSeries; application technologies like Java™/J2EE/JCA and XML; and new Internet technologies such as Web Services and .Net.