Computer-Assisted Coding's Bright Future

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A Recent HIMSS report indicates computer-assisted coding applications are poised for growth.

A report from HIMSS Analytics indicates computer-assisted coding applications have a 20 percent or greater historical compound annual growth rate, although fewer than 20 percent of hospitals have installed such applications.

Health Data Management explains to find this information, HIMSS evaluated 25 support service applications used by hospitals in terms of market penetration compared with projected sales volume.

“In preparation for the shift to ICD-10, it is no surprise that the sales potential for coding solutions is high,” said Lorren Pettit, Vice President of Market Research for HIMSS Analytics in a press statement. “The findings suggest that market opportunities are ripe for vendors with Computer Assisted Coding solutions.

iHealth Beat reports that researchers also found that five other applications had a "healthy" projected growth trajectory of between 10 percent and 15 percent over the next five years:

● ambulatory electronic health record applications
● dictation with speech recognition applications
● disaster recovery system applications
● electronic forms management applications
● single sign-on applications

Researchers found that 15 applications had a projected growth trajectory of less than 10 percent over the same time period. In addition, the report found that 11 of the 25 applications had a relatively high market penetration level and could therefore be characterized as standard business tools.