Payers, Providers Still Behind in ICD-10 Transition

A recent survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) reveals that despite the impending Oct. 1, 2014 deadline to transition to the ICD-10 code-set, the healthcare industry isn’t ready.

In October, WEDI surveyed 353 respondents, including 196 providers, 59 vendors, and 98 payers, to conclude that overall many healthcare organizations are not where they should be in completing ICD-10 compliance milestones, per the WEDI/ North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (NCHICA) timeline.

Eighty percent of providers will not complete their business changes and begin testing before 2014. More than 20 percent of vendors said they were half-way or less than half-way complete with product development in support of ICD-10, and 40 percent said they would not have products available to customers until 2014. One-third of payers were planning to test externally by the end of 2013, down from one-half in the February 2013 survey.

It wasn’t all bad though. Approximately 60 percent of payers have completed their impact assessment, and another 20 percent had already completed them, which was up from one-half of respondents in the February survey.

“Based on the survey results, all industry segments appear to have made some progress since February 2013, but have not gained sufficient ground to remove concern over meeting the October 1, 2014 compliance deadline.” Jim Daley, Chairman of WEDI, said in a statement.  “Unless all segments move quickly forward with their implementation efforts, there will be significant disruption on Oct 1, 2014.”