Survey: Small, Mid-Sized Hospitals Slow on ICD-10 Implementation

According to a recent survey from the Plantation, Fla.-based coding vendor, Health Revenue Assurance Holdings (HRAA), one-in-five small-to-midsized hospitals have not begun education or training practitioners for the shift to the ICD-10 code-set. HRAA found that half of these hospitals are not in-tune with the official Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ICD-10 transition timeline.

“The shift from ICD-9 to ICD-10 is equivalent to learning another language; it will not be as easy as flipping a switch. HIM coders must be exposed and then trained on the fundamentals of ICD-10 to ensure that a hospital’s revenue system remains intact and that millions will not be left on the table when the transition takes place,” Andrea Clark, chief executive officer of HRAA, said in a statement.

The company, which interviewed leaders at 120 hospitals, also found that 40 percent of respondents have not begun ICD-10 CM training for coding staff, and 55 percent have not begun ICD-10-PCS training for coding staff. In addition, 31 percent do not plan to dual code prior to Oct. 1, 2014, which is the drop-dead date for the transition.

This is the second recent survey that indicates many in the healthcare industry are not ready for the ICD-10 transition. The Reston, Va.-based Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a non-profit aimed at improving healthcare through health information exchange (HIE), recently released a report that says the healthcare industry is not making the amount of progress that is needed for a smooth transition to ICD-10 in October 2014.