Survey still shows slow ICD-10 progress

The latest status surveys from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) indicate that the healthcare is still behind when it comes to preparing for ICD-10 implementation.

WEDI has been conducting such surveys since 2009, with the most recent survey in October querying 196 providers, 59 vendors and 98 health insurers. “Based on the survey results, all industry segments appear to have made some progress since February 2013, but have not gained sufficient ground to remove concern over meeting the Oct. 1, 2014 compliance deadline,” says WEDI Chairman Jim Daley. “Unless all segments move quickly forward with their implementation efforts, there will be significant disruption on Oct. 1, 2014.” 

According to the survey results:

• One-fifth of vendors are halfway or less than halfway complete with product development and about 60 percent said they will or plan to start customer review and beta testing by the end of 2013.
• Approximately 80 percent of surveyed payers are fully or nearly complete with their impact assessment, compared with half in February 2013. About two-thirds have started internal testing or expect to by the end of 2013. In February 2013, three-quarters expected to be at this stage.
• One-third of payers reported they have begun external testing or expect to start by the end of 2013, down from the half that expected to be doing so at this time. About 60 percent expect to start external testing in the first half of 2014.
• About half of providers said they have completed their impact assessment compared with one-sixth at that stage in February 2013. About 10 percent of providers expect to start external testing in 2013 with another 50 percent gearing up for testing in the first half of 2014.
• The majority of providers plan to test with a sample of insurers or only with clearinghouses, and about one-quarter expect to test with the majority of their payers.

Access more survey results here.