Ready or Not for ICD-10?

The answer back in January 2014, in a survey of 1,200 North Carolina providers conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), was a resounding, “No, we’re not ready for ICD-10.� At that time, the approaching deadline was only 10 months later on October 1, 2014.

Now that the deadline for ICD-10 implementation has been moved forward another year to October 1, 2015, another look at that survey will show gaps that we now have the time to bridge.

CMS recently released the results from the survey. (See below)

The numbers tell the story:

  • More providers were aware of or familiar with ICD-10 (720) than not (471).
  • Almost half had not planned to conduct ICD-10 external testing with partners, but that was on the old schedule. Now there’s time for testing.
  • More than half (717) hadn’t started training. Now there’s time.
  • Most (735) hadn’t started updating their billing or coding processes. Now there’s time.
  • Most (693) hadn’t made progress in implementing ICD-10 compliant software. Now there’s time.

So it’s not surprising that only 477 said they were “very confident” or “confident” that they would be ready to conduct ICD-10 transactions by the earlier deadline. The rest were either neutral about their readiness or not confident. Only slightly more were confident that their vendors or trading partners would be ready.

As we take advantage of an extra year to prepare, the survey provides examples of how to do that. Respondents wanted training, and their preferred methods were web sites, on-line training, handbooks or guides, and fact sheets. Instructor led training was mentioned as a fifth choice.

Opportunities for training abound on the web, including how to ensure that your business processes and software are ready for ICD-10. Good places to start are on the CMS web site and those of local associations such as NCHICA. Providers will be notified about training opportunities as they arise.

More information will also be available shortly regarding ICD-10 testing for NCTracks.

A brief look at the survey respondents

The Demographics of the 1,200 providers who responded to the survey:
515 Other *
330 Physician Group Practice
234 Solo Physician Practice
55 Hospital
31 Community Health Center
18 Rural health Clinic
14 Physician Practice Billing Firm
3 Physician Practice Management Firm

* The Demographics of Other:
102 Behavioral Health, including substance abuse, psych, social services
61 Assisted living/LTC/Nursing Home
54 Home based services
47 PT/OT/SLP and rehab
41 Local county health & DSS
28 DME, Prosthetics and Orthotics
27 Dental, oral surgery/orthodontics
The remaining 32 categories had fewer than 20 in each one

The Demographics of their organizational roles:
399 Practice/office/business manager
260 Other
226 Biller
142 Physician provider
81 Other provider