The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange, announced the release of its findings from its June 2015 ICD-10 Industry Readiness Survey. In August letters to the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, WEDI shared survey results and recommendations, strongly encouraging the department to continue to leverage its communication channels to promote the need for compliance because of the impact that non-compliance could have on the industry.
“While much of the industry is nearing readiness, nearly one-quarter of physician practice respondents said they will not be ready by the October 1, 2015 deadline and another one-quarter were unsure,” says Jim Daley, WEDI ICD-10 Workgroup Co-Chair. “Without a dedicated and aggressive effort to complete implementation activities in the time remaining, this lack of readiness may lead to disruption in claims processing.”
WEDI has produced many work products and tools to ensure a smooth transition to ICD-10 and these ongoing surveys have been designed to gauge stakeholder readiness. Highlights from the latest survey findings include:
- Physician practice testing and readiness: Only about 20 percent of physician practices have started or completed external testing and less than 50 percent responded that they were ready or would be ready for Oct. 1. This is cause for concern.
- Hospital/health system testing and readiness: Almost 75 percent of hospitals and health systems have started or completed external testing. Additionally, nearly 90 percent responded that they were ready or would be ready by the compliance date, while a few were unsure if they would be ready.
- Health plan testing and readiness: Nearly 75 percent of health plans have begun or completed external testing. 40 percent responded that they were already prepared and the remaining 60 percent said they would be ready by October 1.
- Vendor product development and availability: 75 percent of vendor respondents have fully completed product development and no one responded that their products would not be ready by the compliance date.
WEDI recommendations to HHS included the following:
- HHS should expeditiously provide full transparency regarding the readiness of individual Medicaid agencies by state.
- The recently-announced Ombudsman position should be appointed as soon as possible and WEDI strongly urges CMS to not wait until the compliance deadline to complete this appointment.
- The go-live ICD-10 support plan should include leveraging WEDI’s and CMS’ implementation support program, which already serves as the central source for collecting ICD-10 industry issues and solutions.
- Additional outreach is needed in order to help providers with complying with most recent local coverage determination codes (LCDs).
