Few Physician Practices Prepared as ICD-10 Deadline Nears

With a deadline less than 2 months away, researchers with Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) found that only 20% of physician practices have started or completed testing for the transition to International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10).

Only half of the physician respondents said they were or would be ready by the October 1, 2015, deadline, according to WEDI’s June ICD-10 Industry Readiness Survey.

“While much of the industry is nearing readiness, nearly one-quarter of physician practice respondents said they will not be ready by the October 1, 2015 deadline and another one-quarter were unsure,” Jim Daley, WEDI past-chair and ICD-10 Workgroup co-chair, said in a statement. “Without a dedicated and aggressive effort to complete implementation activities in the time remaining, this lack of readiness may lead to disruption in claims processing."

The report also found that 75% of hospital and health systems, health plans and product vendors have started or completed the testing. The hospitals and health system respondents indicated that they were the most ready of these groups, where 90% responded that they were or would be ready by October. More than half of the health plans also responded that they would be ready for the transition.

As a result of the report, WEDI report authors recommended that HHS provide transparency in regards to the prepared and readiness of individual Medicaid agencies. Among other recommendations, they also encouraged the department “to continue to leverage its communication channels to promote the need for compliance because of the impact that non-compliance could have on the industry.”