HIMSS G7, a multi-stakeholder group charged with identifying strategies to improve the nation's healthcare financial network, has released a plan of action for supporting the implementation of the ICD-10 coding set by the Oct. 1, 2014 deadline.

In a 13-page advisory report, the group outlined a number of solutions it said would assist the transition, including targeted education efforts aimed at independent physician group practices and increased vendor readiness.

Also, the report pressed for the creation of an ICD-10 pilot program whose purpose “would be to test alternative implementation approaches, producing metrics around implementation impacts, resource needs, costs and outcomes, while identifying critical test cases and scenarios.”

Finally, HIMSS G7 said, groups such as the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and the American Health Information Management Association need to ramp up their member-support capabilities and ensure they are delivering a consistent message.

“HIMSS G7 urges the cooperating parties to expand their capacity to handle the expected large volumes of clarifying questions between now and the implementation date such that answers can be provided in days, not weeks,” the group said in the report.

HIMSS G7, which meets three times a year, is a revolving roundtable of experts that includes healthcare providers, insurers, government officials, consumers and information technology professionals. This most recent group included representatives from AHIMA, LifePoint Hospitals, Relay Health and Siemens Healthcare.