ICD-10: Still in the Works
If you are worried that your organization is falling behind on ICD-10 preparation, you are not alone. Nearly half of the 2,118 providers who participated in the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) February 2012 ICD-10 readiness survey said they did not even know when they would be completing their impact assessment — a key milestone that should have been met in 2011. Only a fifth had already completed their assessment.
Health plans are only marginally more prepared, according to the WEDI survey; over one-third of the 242 respondents have completed their assessments, but a quarter are less than halfway there. Most health plans have not slated external testing until 2013.
WEDI notes that historically, their membership and survey respondents tend to be more aware of industry issues and are correspondingly more advanced in addressing them, giving even more weight to ICD-10 preparedness concerns.
In April, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), proposed to postpone the ICD-10 deadline for one year, from Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 1, 2014.
The American Hospital Association (AHA), recognizing that deadline uncertainly is diminishing industry focus on ICD-10 preparation, asked CMS in July to set a firm deadline in order to give providers the time — and motivation — to properly prepare.
“We are in an environment where the demands on providers are really great,” AHA policy director Chantal Worzala told InformationWeek Healthcare. “So there is a natural tendency to prioritize among all the things you have in front of you. We asked CMS to finalize its rule as quickly as possible so we can go back to a state of certainty about the date.”
The AHA has a right to be concerned, as the WEDI survey found that providers, payers, and even vendors have become distracted by a plethora of issues. The survey asked all participants to list the top three obstacles to their ICD-10 preparation progress, and nearly three-quarters responded that competing internal priorities were the biggest obstacle. Other distractions listed included other regulatory mandates, significant IT impacts, staffing, budget and both customer and vendor readiness concerns.
Two-fifths of the providers responded that they were worried about vendor preparedness, and with reason. Vendors are certainly as far behind as providers and payers, with nearly half of the 231 surveyed responding that they are less than halfway complete with their product development. For those organizations ahead of the game and looking for the right vendor, their options may be limited, as only about one-fifth indicated their services or software was already available.
“When CMS puts out a final rule and everybody starts to say ok, ‘this is the date,’ and they get back to the work of preparing, we can take that extra time and use it to ramp up the testing with our trading partners, including the insurers,” Worzala said.
Of course, not everyone agrees with these somewhat worrying results. The 2012 HIMSS Leadership Survey, published at its February conference, found that, for two-thirds of the respondents, ICD-10 was a top focus for their organization. Nearly 90% thought they would be able to complete their ICD-10 conversion by the earlier, October 2013, deadline.
Whether your organization’s preparation timeline supports WEDI’s survey results or HIMSS’s, there is no denying that ICD-10 is a major transition all healthcare leaders must focus on, now or in the immediate future.
If you are looking to motivate your organization to keep its foot on the gas when it comes to ICD-10 preparation, check out a recent Executive Insight article written by Bob Schwyn, principal, Aspen Advisors. He emphasizes that the potential impact of ICD-10 implementation on your organization's financial performance is substantial, so preparedness is essential. He recommends organizations take advantage of the delay to ensure that their efforts do not negatively impact their financial performance as the deadline looms.
For more information, see WEDI’s Survey Results, or check out InformationWeek’s coverage:
For more information from HIMSS, browse through their 2012 Leadership Survey