ICD-10 survey: Providers prepared, but worried about productivity, revenue
The majority of healthcare organizations are prepared to begin ICD-10 testing in the near future, however concerns persist about the impact of ICD-10 on work, productivity and revenue, according to a joint survey from the eHealth Initiative and the American Health Information Management Association.
Preliminary findings of the survey, which to date reflect the views of 349 stakeholders, also revealed optimism that increased specificity offered through ICD-10 can improve research, population health management and quality. Also, they conveyed that the ICD-10 delay represents an opportunity for additional training.
However, there may be some gaps in readiness for ICD-10 testing. Of the organizations that are not planning to perform end-to-end testing:
- 41 percent said they do not know how to perform testing
- 14 percent report that testing is too expensive
- 14 percent believe that testing is unnecessary
- 6 percent report that their business partners will not perform testing with them
Also, 53 percent of those with no plans to test are physician practices and clinics; only one hospital and integrated delivery network reported no plans for testing.
When it came to the effect on revenue, 38 percent of respondents reported that ICD-10 would see a reduction in revenue; 14 percent said that revenue would remain neutral; and 6 percent expected an increase in revenue. Twenty-six percent of organizations reported that they have not conducted a revenue impact assessment.
In the short term, ICD-10 will make common activities like documenting patient encounters and adjudicating reimbursement more difficult. The respondents reported the following top challenges to ICD-10 implementation:
- Clinical workflow and productivity (57 percent)
- Claims processing (57 percent)
- Lack of staff (50 percent)
- Change management (49 percent)
- Vendor and partner readiness (45 percent)
About 68 percent noted plans to conduct additional training, with 31 percent noting that they will hire more coders.
Learn more here.