Survey Results Validate ICD-10 Delay

Just before Congress voted to delay ICD-10 for at least a year, a survey of 1,300 healthcare professionals validated the decision.

Recently released results from NueMD’s survey conducted in March 2014 reveal that just 23% of respondents were satisfied with the new coding standards. Furthermore, 55% said the transition should be delayed or eliminated. Little had changed from a survey 18 months prior when 56% of respondents felt the same way.

A surprising number of respondents admitted to being unknowledgeable about ICD-10. A fifth said they were not familiar with it, and 15% said they were not familiar with the proposed timelines (Oct. 1, 2014, at the time of the survey).

More than half (58%) said they were significantly or highly concerned about the impact of ICD-10, with claims processing garnering the most worry. According to respondents, 68% were significantly concerned about claims processing.

Meanwhile, they were least concerned about software upgrade cost. A quarter of respondents said they were not at all or minimally concerned about this cost, 18% was moderately concerned and 61% was significantly or highly concerned.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents expected ICD-10 to very or somewhat negatively affect their business finances and their operations. The area that would be least affected would be their own personal state of mind, according to respondents.

Respondents placed the most responsibility on the government for a successful transition to ICD-10 and the least responsibility on their own businesses.

While 30% of respondents have resigned themselves to government regulation as a way of life, 36% want the government to do less when it comes to regulating healthcare information technology and 12% want the government to completely remove regulation. Only 11% actually want the government to do more and just 10% would have the government do the same amount of regulation.

Only 12% of respondents consider the government the most trusted source of information about implementation of new standards.