The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) finds that healthcare providers and health plans have fallen behind recommended timelines for the government-mandated switchover to the ICD-10 diagnostic code set, which is scheduled for Oct. 1, 2013. The results of the latest WEDI survey add more details to those of a just-released KLAS poll that shows the same alarming trend.
According to WEDI, most surveyed software vendors expect to finish testing their ICD-10 upgrades in 2012 and deliver the products to their customers in the second half of next year. However, the vendors said that interest in these products is still low among healthcare providers.
Most health plans have not completed a full impact analysis of ICD-10, although the WEDI timeline recommends completion in January 2011. Approximately two-thirds of the plans indicated that they would not be ready for external testing until sometime after the recommended date of January 2013.
Providers also reported being behind on their impact analyses, and three-quarters of them indicated that they would not be ready to test ICD-10 by January 2013.
Provider organizations said that other IT priorities, including electronic health records and the transition to the 5010 transaction set, were competing with ICD-10 for budget dollars and personnel. As a result, they said, they were unable to devote their full efforts to ICD-10 compliance.
"These results are showing that the industry is not progressing quickly enough on the timeline to assure us that they will be ready in October 2013," Jim Schuping, CEO and President of WEDI, said in a press release. "We would urge entities to increase their implementation effort or we will be facing an extremely difficult situation in 2013."
The KLAS report found that less than 10 percent of providers had passed the halfway mark in their ICD-10 preparations. KLAS recommends that lagging providers hire outside consultants to help them accelerate their efforts.
To learn more:
- read the WEDI press release