ICD 10 Implementation – Are you the 80%

Oct. 1, 2014 is the deadline for ICD-10 conversion. However, according to a survey from the Workgroup for electronic data interchange, 8 out of 10 practices have not begun testing and only half have begun the initial steps of impact assessment. Some attribute these delays to their IT vendors not being ready; 40% of vendors said their products won’t be ready before 2014. There has been discussion about The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) possibly delaying the deadline again or an “enforcement-free” period of 6 months, but CMS has resisted that idea.

On a more positive ICD-10 note, Sutter Health of California is planning on going live this May, a result of its 3-year planning efforts. The May launch will give Sutter doctors a five-month test period before the deadline. Danielle Reno, Sutter’s ICD-10 program director said, “We won’t be submitting claims to payers in ICD-10, but we will turn it on, and physicians will be able to use it.” Another company testing its ICD-10 plans is North Carolina Healthcare Information & Communications Alliance (NCHICA). Holt Anderson, executive director at NCHICA, ran a test pilot with some of the best coders, and there were still significant concerns about accuracy. Using “dual coders” who coded in both ICD-9 and ICD-10, only 55% of the transition scenarios were accurate in the first wave of testing.