With the ICD-10 transition in our rearview, 66% of providers plan to focus on improving their overall revenue cycle management processes in 2016, according to the post-ICD-10 implementation survey from Navicure. Fifteen percent indicated they would be working towards a value-based care model while another nine percent are updating and automating patient collections strategies. Navicure and Porter Research deployed the survey in December 2015 as the final wave of a research study designed to trend attitudes and behavior regarding the ICD-10 transition.
The survey found healthcare organizations have seen minimal or no staff productivity impact in the first few months following the ICD-10 implementation. Respondents reported that only 13 percent of administrative staff and 15 percent of clinical staff saw a significant productivity impact following the transition.
Additional findings were focused on themes of readiness, challenges and successes, including:
Readiness for the ICD-10 deadline. Nearly all of respondents (99%) said they were prepared for the transition date. This is consistent with the August 2015 survey where the majority (85%) were confident they would be ready. While 42 percent of participants did not participate in end-to-end testing as part of preparation efforts, 82 percent of the organizations that participated rated it as being somewhat or extremely helpful to their successful outcome.
Impact on revenue and denial rates. The majority of participants (60%) did not see any impact on monthly revenue following October 1, 2015, and 34 percent have seen revenue decrease by up to 20 percent. Denial rates remained the same for 45 percent of respondents, with nominal increases between 1 and 10 percent for 44 percent of the participants. Eleven percent of participants reported increases between 11 and 40 percent. This compared favorably to prior survey results where 61 percent of respondents expected denial rates to increase by 11 to 40 percent.
Impact on Productivity. Only 13 percent of administrative staff and 15 percent of clinical staff saw significant productivity impact following the ICD-10 transition. An additional 46 percent of administrative staff and 42 percent of clinical staff didn’t see much of a productivity impact and still haven’t. The remaining 43 percent of clinical staff and 41 percent of administrative staff experienced a minor impact or didn’t know.
Survey Background/Methodology
In December 2015, Navicure commissioned Porter Research to conduct a national survey of healthcare organizations to gauge ICD-10’s impact on their organization. This was a follow up to four ICD-10 preparation surveys conducted in 2013 and 2015. The survey focused on ICD-10 readiness and impact following the October 1, 2015, transition. Some questions were identical to previous surveys while others were unique to this survey. Responses to all questions were self-reported.
The majority of the 360 survey participants were practice administrators or billing managers (59%), followed by practice executives (17%) and billers and coders (16%). Survey respondents represented a broad range of specialties and sizes, with the majority (60%) coming from organizations with one to 10 providers.
