A new survey on ICD-10 readiness, this one courtesy of Atlanta-based medical clearinghouse Navicure, shows that physician practices are struggling with the transition.
The survey, which included responses from more than 500 physician practices, found that 33 percent of practices have yet to even start the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10. What's more, 21 percent of those respondents said that they already feel as if they are "off-track."
Additionally, 26 percent of respondents said they don't have enough time, staff or training resources at their disposal to get the job done; 45 percent identified training as the biggest hurdle to making the transition.
The findings seem to fall in line with those in several other surveys published over the past few months. Earlier this month, for instance, the Medical Group Management Association's ICD-10 survey found that only 4.8 percent of more than 1,200 responding medical groups had made "significant" progress in their implementation efforts. More than 55 percent of respondents to that survey said they were "very concerned" about the overall costs related to the conversion.
Meanwhile, a survey published in April by healthcare revenue IT vendor Health Revenue Assurance Holdings found that 20 percent of responding small- and mid-sized hospitals had yet to start any education or training for the shift. Additionally, healthcare consultants Aloft Group and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) also have determined that the healthcare industry, by-and-large, is dragging its feet when it comes to the ICD-10 transition.
Despite the findings, federal officials repeatedly have made it clear that there will not be a second extension of the ICD-10 deadline. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also does not plan to conduct any extra external ICD-10 testing with hospitals and payers via Medicare administrative contractors to help assess readiness.
To learn more:
- here's the survey (.pdf)