Latest WEDI ICD-10 readiness survey shows delay didn't help
The latest ICD-10 readiness survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) found that many organizations did not take advantage of the additonal time afforded by the one-year implementation delay.
The organization submitted its concerns in a letter to secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. “Unless all industry segments take the initiative to make a dedicated effort and move forward with their implementation work, there will be significant disruption on Oct. 1, 2015,” said Devin Jopp, EdD, president and CEO of WEDI.
Among the findings were uncertainty around further delays as a primary obstacle to implementation. More than 50 percent of health plans have begun external testing and of those a few have completed testing. This is a slight improvement from the prior survey.
About 60 percent indicated their vendor products were available or they had started customer testing which is a slight decrease from about two-thirds in the August 2014 survey. However, the number that responded ‘unknown’ decreased from one-eighth to just a few respondents.
Only 25 percent of provider respondents had begun external testing and only a few others had completed this step which is a decrease from the about 35 percent of provider respondents that had begun external testing in the August 2014 survey.
“Based on the survey results, it appears the delay has had a negative impact on some readiness activities—especially external testing. Uncertainty over further delays was listed as a top obstacle across all industry segments,” said Jim Daley, WEDI past-chair and ICD-10 Workgroup co-chair. “While the delay provided more time for the transition to ICD-10, many organizations did not take full advantage of this additional time and many providers are falling further behind.”
The survey results are based on responses from 1,174 respondents, consisting of 796 providers, 173 vendors and 205 health plans. The number of responses more than doubled from the last ICD-10 survey WEDI conducted in August 2014.
This is the tenth ICD-10 readiness survey WEDI has conducted since 2009.
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Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.