ICD-10 Survey: Small Practices Not Trained, Not Ready for Transition

NueMD's third "Attitudes Towards ICD-10" survey generated 1,000 responses from health care professionals across all 50 states. The goal of the survey is to learn how the industry feels about ICD-10 ahead of the October 1 deadline and to gain insight into particular areas of concern.

The survey asks respondents how they feel about the new coding standards and the timeline for implementation. The top response for both questions is "There should be no transition to ICD-10." To help explain that sentiment:

• 11% of respondents said they're "highly confident" their employees will be adequately trained by October 1, while 35% said they're "not at all confident."
• 13% of respondents said they're "highly confident" their business will be prepared for ICD-10 by October 1, while 31% said they're "not at all confident."

When asked about their concerns and expectations for different areas of their business:

• 65% said they're "highly" or "significantly" concerned about claims processing.
• 70% expect that finances will be affected "somewhat" or "very" negatively.
• 70% expect that operations will be affected "somewhat" or "very" negatively.

While the survey includes responses from medical practices, billing companies, and other industry professionals, the majority of respondents are from small practices. The data suggest these small practices are less prepared and more concerned than larger organizations.

"The transition deadline is coming up fast, but there's still time to prepare," says Caleb Clarke, director of sales and marketing at NueMD. "Coders and billers should become comfortable with new code sets and providers need to get used to the new level of specificity required for documentation. If you're able to rattle off your most common [ICD-10] codes by October 1, that'll go a long way."

NueMD conducted similar surveys in 2012 and 2014. While there were some small positive changes in levels of concern, there weren't any major shifts over the last three years.

Source: NueMD