Anesthesia Management: Survey finds lack of preparedness for ICD-10

Just 11 percent of healthcare organizations said they are fully ready to implement the new coding system, according to a survey by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

The survey of 326 healthcare organizations conducted this summer stands in contrast to the “surprising reported from a poll of 349 providers by the American Health Information Management Association and the eHealth Initiative.

The poll found its own surprises about the mandate including:

• More than 59 percent of respondents indicated they have not begun testing

• Of that 59 percent, more than three-quarters have not completed software upgrades on their networks to support ICD-10

• 41 percent said they will incur additional consultant retainer costs because of the delay

• 45 percent said they couldn’t even guess how much the delay will end up costing them

• 55 percent said the delay won’t allow for IT staff to implement other IT systems for better documentation, coding, etc.

• Two-thirds indicated the ICD-10 delay will not negatively affect Meaningful Use Stage 2 attestation. However, 31 percent said they will consider skipping a year of Stage 2 incentives to make sure the ICD-10 implementation goes smoothly, because there aren’t enough resources to focus on both.