Survey of Physicians Shows Many Behind on ICD-10

A survey of more than 500 physician practices finds one-third have not started ICD-10 compliance work with the October 2014 deadline looming.

Claims clearinghouse Navicure commissioned Porter Research to conduct the online survey, which included clients of the vendor and non-clients. Of the practices that have stared compliance work, one-fifth believe they already are behind. Only 12 percent believe they are on track for timely implementation.

Thirty-six percent of respondents who have not started ICD-10 preparations believe there is plenty of time to prepare, 26 percent don’t have the time, staff or training resources to start; and 22 percent don’t where to start planning. Only four percent say they don’t have funds to start. Other results include:

* Respondents see training and lack of payer readiness as the largest challenges and more than half are concerned about cash flow disruptions when ICD-10 becomes effective.

* Twenty-four percent have budgeted for training and 19 percent have a budget for technology upgrades.

* Forty-three percent of responding practices expect a productivity drop of less than 20 percent, while a third expect a drop of up to 40 percent.

* In order, the top five challenges with ICD-10 compliance are training, payer preparedness, technology upgrades, staff buy-in and cost.

* In order, the most important vendors to assist in ICD-10 are electronic health record, physician practice management, coding, clearinghouse and document management.

* In order, the biggest worries are cash flow, payer readiness, insufficient staff training, productivity drops and the technology won’t be ready.

Complete survey results, and a considerable number of tips from the vendor, are available at navicure.com/survey.