Providers Show Lack of Progress from October 2013 Survey
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), has released its findings from a August 2014 ICD-10 Industry Readiness Survey. WEDI has been conducting ICD-10 readiness surveys since 2009. The surveys measure industry progress and help identify where providers may be struggling with compliance.
According to WEDI, this year’s survey “used an abridged set of questions aimed mostly at status rather than approaches to compliance, and survey questions paralleled those in prior surveys to facilitate direct comparison.” Survey results show progress towards ICD-10 compliance has lagged, and particularly among the smaller provider groups. The full survey results are contained in WEDI’s September 19 letter to HHS.
Key findings from this year’s survey include:
- 40 percent of vendors indicated they are complete with product development. This is an improvement over the October 2013 survey.
- 25 percent of vendors responded that their products would not be ready until 2015 or responded ‘unknown.’
- 75 percent of health plans had completed their impact assessment.
- 50 percent of health plans have already begun external testing compared to less than 25 percent in the prior survey.
- 50 percent of the providers indicated they have completed their impact assessment—essentially the same number as in the October 2013 survey.
- 35 percent of providers have begun external testing, while in the October 2013 survey about 60 percent had expected to begin by the middle of 2014.
- 60 percent of health plans expect to test with a sample of providers, while about 20 percent indicated they will test with a majority of providers.
Commenting on the 2014 survey, Jim Daley, WEDI chairman and ICD-10 Workgroup co-chair said “Based on the survey results, all industry segments appear to have made some progress since October 2013, but the lack of progress by providers, in particular smaller ones, remains a cause for concern as we move toward the compliance deadline. Delaying compliance efforts reduces the time available for adequate testing, increasing the chances of unanticipated impacts to production. We urge the industry to accelerate implementation efforts in order to avoid disruption on Oct. 1, 2015.”
WEDI is hosting a free webinar on October 9th to discuss the results of this survey. You can learn more on how to attend.