[Editor's note: Steven Grest, MD and Aman Khanna, MD, shared tactics for embarking on a Request for Proposal seeking financial risk assessment for ICD-10. This accompanying article poses a number of questions to address during the process, particular to solutions, staffing and technology.]

Possible RFP questions/requirements are:

Solution/Approach
A. As a large organization, we have multiple processes that require ICD-10 remediation. How will your solution help us prioritize our ICD-10 remediation efforts and resource allocation?

B. Please describe your approach to delivering a financial risk assessment including all phases and major activities.

C. For each activity included in your approach, please describe the responsibilities and tasks required of [organization name]. Please include the anticipated time commitment and number of [organization’s] resources required.

D. Will members of [organization] be required to use or access the ICD-10 financial risk assessment tool?
     a. If yes:
         b. What level of training is required to use the ICD-10 financial risk assessment tool?
         c. Is this training provided as part of the ICD-10 financial risk assessment?

E. Please provide a detailed timeline for the financial risk assessment. Note that vendors that seem unclear on the duration may not have done this many times or may not have an industrialized solution.

F. What additional modeling capabilities are included? If so, please describe.

G. What standard reports are delivered as part of the analysis?

H. From the analysis, what level of visibility will we have into ICD-10 reimbursement impacts?

I. At what level of granularity does the solution analyze reimbursement impacts?

J. How will the solution outcomes be used for the physician/provider and coder?

K. What are the areas of improvement that the solution can be leveraged? Does this process interface or negatively impact in-house CDI initiatives in process?

L. What level of report customization is available?

M. Can we include additional attributes into our analysis?

N. Please provide sample reports. Note that visibility into sample reports should help you assess the length and breadth of the solution.

O. Is a review of our current/prospective remediation plan and its ability to address potential financial impacts included as part of the financial risk assessment?

Technology/Requirements
P. What tools do you use to enable the ICD-10 financial risk assessment?

Q. How is your solution implemented (e.g., cloud-based vs. in-house)? If your solution is deployed in-house please provide a detailed list of technology and resource requirements.

R.  Is PHI data captured and used for analysis and report generation?
      a. If yes: please describe your HIPAA policies and the data security processes.

S. How is the required data extracted and transmitted?

T. How do you validate the data provided from the hospital or clinic?

U. What level of data cleansing is performed?

V. Are any interfaces into our systems required? If so, please describe the interface and any technical and (organization) resources required.

Staffing/Resources
W. How many of your resources are required to support the financial risk assessment?
X. How many of the resources proposed for this engagement are on-shore, off-shore, and/or remote?
Y. Do you have ICD-10 subject matter expertise in-house? Please describe.

Dwan Thomas Flowers, MBA, RHIA, CCS, AHIMA-approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer and a senior health information consultant for Deloitte, and Paresh Shah, CEO of MindLeaf Technologies contributed to this article. This article is the result of a collaboration between Jvion and HIMSS ICD-10 Playbook and ICD-10 Task Force.