Impact on cash flow is the biggest concern for physician practices regarding the ICD-10 transition according a new ICD-10 survey from Navicure. The findings show that 52 percent of the respondents are most concerned about disruptions to cash flow once the new code set goes into effect on October 1, 2014. The survey also found that 33 percent of respondents from physician practices have not started preparing for the October 1, 2014, ICD-10 implementation deadline. In addition, 21 percent of those practices that have started preparing feel like they are already behind.
Other key findings of the survey include:
- Of those respondents who haven’t started preparations:
- 36 percent believe there is more than enough time to prepare.
- 26 percent stated they do not have the time, staff or training resources available to begin ICD-10 preparations
- 22 percent don’t know where to start ICD-10 planning
- Practices consider training (45 percent) and lack of payer readiness (30 percent) to be the biggest ICD-10 challenges
- Even with all of the concern about ICD-10, only a few practices have set aside a budget for training (24 percent) and technology upgrades (19 percent)
- 43 percent of practices anticipates a productivity drop of less than 20 percent from ICD-10
- 33 percent expect the productivity drop to average closer to 21-40 percent from ICD-10
- EHR and practice management systems are viewed the most critical for successful ICD-10 implementation
Related: ICD-10 Survey Finds Lack of Support from EHR Vendors
Background
In April 2013, Navicure, a leading medical claims clearinghouse for physician practices commissioned Porter Research to conduct an online survey of more than 500 physician practices across the country to guage the status of their ICD-10 preperation efforts. Physician practices of various sizes and specialties across the U.S. answered the online survey, which asked about ICD-10 preparation progress, resource availability and technology readiness. The majority of participants (61 percent) identified themselves as practice administrators or billing managers.
To view the complete survey results and analysis, visit www.navicure.com/survey.
Featured image credit: 401(K) 2013 via cc
