Providers Behind On ICD-10 Testing
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
According to a recent survey, three out of four healthcare providers were not meeting the recommended timeline for the switch to ICD-10
Health IT Outcomes recently detailed the need for ICD-10 as well as the financial implications of complying, writing, “So, what’s a provider to do? Simple — if they want more efficient payment, they should get onboard the ICD-10 train.”
Still, though it’s widely recognized the switch is needed, nearly 75 percent of providers admitted in a recent QualiTest Group survey they are unprepared for the change. According to the survey, only half of the providers responded they had “completed an ICD-10 impact assessment including identifying top 100 DRG codes, top 200 procedure, and diagnosis codes,” while one if four said they had “completed the impact assessment but had not started planning the ICD-10 testing effort.”
This puts these providers at great risk compared to the ICD-10 timeline provided by CMS which encouraged planning and communications be completed by February, 2013, and most testing completed no later than the end of the year.
According to EHR Intelligence, “Few providers look like they’re going to meet those checkpoints.” EHR Intelligence continues, “Providers expect that when they manage to reach the testing phase, they will take 9-12 months to complete it. With the one-year mark rapidly approaching, providers will need to cram education, testing, CDI, and software updates into the final months before go-live. Respondents to the survey are confident that their attention to the needs of their medical coders will be sufficient, with 88% stating that coder readiness will be ‘covered well’ during testing. This is likely due to 85% of providers committing to dual coding exercises before the implementation date.”
QualiTest’s survey was not the only ICD-10 study to reach such a conclusion about provider’s current state of ICD-10 readiness. An American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) survey found “over 50 percent (of providers) were still in the beginning phases of ICD-10 migration in fall of 2012. A total of 25 percent had not even formed an ICD-10 steering committee, one of the first steps of implementation. Project plans were underway for only 17 percent of facilities, leaving the vast majority of providers with no plans, no budgets, and very little progress to report.”