ICD-10 Preparation Still Lagging
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Survey reveals providers making little headway in preparing for October’s ICD-10 transition
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Health IT Outcomes reported on a QualiTest Group survey which found nearly 75 percent of providers were not ready for upcoming ICD-10 coding changes. A December report from WEDI, also referred to by Health IT Outcomes, further showed both providers and vendors falling behind in the ICD-10 preparedness race with a majority again indicating they may not be ready to officially make the transition in October 2014.
Now, a new QualiTest Group survey further drives home the point: despite progress since the June survey, providers still have a lot of work ahead of them if they are going to be ready for the transition. Ten percent of providers have not started an ICD-10 impact assessment - two percent aren’t even planning one.
Additionally, 57 percent of respondents have finished the initial impact assessment process, up from 49 percent in June, and an additional 31 percent are in the process. The majority of organizations have still not started testing with only 31 percent reporting they have begun the process.
EHRIntelligence writes, “Perhaps most worrying, however, is the amount of time providers still say they need in order to complete their transition efforts. Fifty-three percent of providers predict that their internal testing will take six to nine months, while 18 percent will need up to a year. Eight percent believe that it will take even longer. While some internal and external testing activities can run concurrently, 41 percent of providers also believe that their external testing process will take up to six months, yet 40 percent plan to test with fewer than five payers. With the hard transition date a mere 10 months away, many organizations may be cutting it far too close for comfort, and might need to investigate methods of speeding up their efforts without sacrificing the quality of their work.”
Other key findings from the survey, according to EHRIntelligence:
- “Most organizations will code their own data for testing, but 20 percent plan to acquire a database of dual coded records or hire a medical coding service to create test data. However, many organizations are concerned that purchasing such a database will not adequately test the ICD-10 skills of their in-house coding staff.
- Only 14 percent plan to use general equivalence mappings (GEM) and crosswalks to produce sample records for testing. However, more than a third of respondents are worried about the coding department’s ability to handle the burden in addition to their normal workload.
- Eighty-eight percent of those surveyed said they plan to use dual coding in both ICD-9 and ICD-10 before October 2014. Most providers (53 percent) say they expect their internal testing of the codes to last 6 to 9 months and 70 percent say their external testing period will likely last 2 to 6 months.”
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