WEDI Survey: Plenty of ICD-10 Uncertainty Remains

Uncertainty around further delays to ICD-10 was listed as a primary obstacle to successful implementation, according to the most recent ICD-10 survey from the Reston, Va.-based Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI).

In its March 31 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), WEDI reported concern with the current level of industry preparedness noting that many organizations did not take full advantage of the additional time afforded by the one-year delay. “Unless all industry segments take the initiative to make a dedicated effort and move forward with their implementation work, there will be significant disruption on Oct. 1, 2015,” said Devin Jopp, president and CEO of WEDI.

As such, uncertainty around future delays appeared on more than 50 percent of all responses for vendors, health plans and providers. All in all, the February 2015 ICD-10 Readiness survey results were based on responses from 1,174 respondents, consisting of 796 providers, 173 vendors and 205 health plans. Other survey highlights included:

Health plan testing: More than 50 percent of health plans have begun external testing, and of these, a few have completed testing. This is a slight improvement from the prior survey.

Vendor product availability: About 60 percent indicated their vendor products were available or they had started customer testing. This is a slight decrease from about two-thirds in the August 2014 survey. However, the number that responded ‘unknown’ decreased from one eighth to just a handful.   

Provider testing: Only 25 percent of provider respondents had begun external testing and only a few others had completed this step. This is actually a decrease from the about 35 percent of provider respondents that had begun external testing in the August 2014 survey.

“While the delay provided more time for the transition to ICD-10, many organizations did not take full advantage of this additional time and many providers are falling further behind,” said Jim Daley, WEDI past-chair and ICD-10 Workgroup co-chair.