Three out of four healthcare providers say their ICD-10 implementation process is 25 percent or less complete and one-third have not yet started the process, according to a study by healthcare consultants Aloft Group.
It polled more than 260 healthcare providers across the United States for its ICD-10 Snapshot Study. Seventy-eight percent of respondents were with community hospitals; 22 percent were with physician groups, academic medical centers and other hospital types.
Despite the slow progress, 55 percent expressed confidence that their organization will meet the Oct. 1, 2014, implementation deadline.
Other findings:
- 71 percent cited lack of time as the biggest obstacle to conversion.
- 41 percent said they're frustrated with their vendor's lack of guidance on conversion.
- 44 percent believe their vendors don't have an adequate schedule in place to ensure they meet the deadline.
- 61 percent said the thing they'd most like from their vendors is the ability to run parallel systems to work out bugs before go-live.
- 75 percent said coding education is the biggest gap in their conversion plans.
"While October 2014 will be here before you know it, there is still an opportunity for vendors to step in because clearly providers are in need of guidance and support in their ICD-10 conversion journey," Matt Bowen, president and CEO of Aloft Group, said in an announcement.
In mid-February, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released checklists and timelines to help provider practices, small hospitals and payers prepare for the shift to ICD-10.
Not all vendors provide the same level of preparedness and assistance, a KLAS Research report found last month. It noted, "most customers, however, are not ready to pass judgment on their vendor as time still remains for any vendor to improve their [sic] ICD-10 preparation and approach."
Calling the transition to ICD-10 "foundational to healthcare transformation," officials from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society recently pressed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to stick to the October 2014 deadline.
Fifty-one percent of respondents in the Aloft Group poll believe that deadline will remain firm.
To learn more:
- find the study
- here's the announcement