59% of physician practices are most concerned about ICD-10 cash flow impact and revenue, according to key findings from Navicure third ICD-10 readiness survey, deployed in January 2015 in conjunction with Porter Research. The findings revealed physician practices are generally optimistic about being ready for the October 1, 2015, transition date, although only 21 percent feel they are currently on track with preparation efforts. However, when physician practices were asked how much they budgeted for ICD-10, the survey found 41 percent of practices don’t know if they’ve budgeted for ICD-10. %
The majority of survey participants (57 percent) were practice administrators or billing managers from practices with 1 to 10 providers. The next largest group was billers and coders who made up 14 percent, followed by practice executives (13 percent).
Survey Key Findings
The survey reveals ICD-10 optimism despite minimal preparation, including:
– 81% are still optimistic they will be ready when the transition happens, and overall optimism toward ICD-10 readiness generally remained high.
– 67% believe the ICD-10 transition will take place on the October 1, 2015, implementation deadline.
– Roughly one-fourth of respondents (23%) claim they do not have the time, staff or resources to begin preparing.
– 30% of respondents believe the deadline will be pushed or they can prepare a few months before the ICD-10 deadline.
– 41% of respondents cite lack of payer readiness as the most challenging aspect of the ICD-10 transition. End-to-end testing with payers remains a priority for practices, though the percent of those opting out of testing opportunities is increasing.
– One third of respondents do, however, believe the ICD-10 transition will be delayed again.
– Among those practices that have not started preparing, one quarter (25%) are waiting on their practice management or EMR vendor for ICD-10 software updates.
– 12% indicated their greatest concern is staff productivity.
– 75% expect a productivity loss up to 40%, while 10% expect to see productivity losses of 41% or more.
– 11% are most concerned that the transition will be delayed again.
