Let’s face it — we’re all a little bit afraid of change and uncertainty. With a number of new regulations in the pipeline that will impact medical practices, many physicians are uneasy, perhaps rightly so. The most recent ruling establishes October 2014 as the deadline for ICD-10 compliance.

The ICD-10 diagnosis code set will replace ICD-9, and expand the number of codes from 17,000 to approximately 141,000. With this announcement, many physicians and medical personnel are bracing themselves for what they fear is a complex labyrinth of documentation.

Please take a look at our short animated video, “Big Challenges for Medical Practices” and review the findings from our national survey, “Attitudes Toward the Transition to ICD-10 and ANSI-5010.” We’d like to hear your thoughts about ICD-10 and other challenges your practice is facing.

In a recent survey of 480 physicians, administrators, office managers and billers, “Attitudes Toward the Transition to ICD-10 and ANSI-5010,” conducted by Nuesoft Technologies, 96 percent of the respondents reported that they are concerned about the potential impact of the transition to ICD-10. In fact, 60 percent of all respondents indicated that they are “significantly” or “highly” concerned.

By comparison, when asked about the impact of the January 2012 adoption of ANSI 5010, 64 percent indicated it had a negative impact on their practice. Three months later, 50 percent of the respondents indicated they were either “not at all” or only “minimally” upset. The other 50 percent responded that they were “moderately,” “significantly” or “highly” upset.

Respondents also expect that the ICD-10 transition will significantly affect their practice. More than 73 percent of the respondents anticipate the process will negatively impact their operations and finances, as well as their “personal and staff state of mind.”

When asked to comment on the survey response, Nuesoft Chief Executive Officer and President Massoud Alibakhsh remarked, “Physicians continue to be unfairly burdened by the rising cost of the reimbursement process and interruptions to their workflow. Our goal is to help make the transition as seamless as possible for our clients.”

The adoption of ICD-10 will be one of the most significant changes the physician practice community has ever undertaken. The more detailed level of specificity required by ICD-10 will impact all practice management processes, including documentation, billing, workflow and quality reporting. In addition, practice software systems will need to be upgraded, and physicians and responsible staff will need extensive training to successfully make the transition.

As a follow-up to the survey, we at Nuesoft contacted some of the respondents and found no shortage of opinions about ICD-10. According to Barbara Dunn, president of MedRecovery Solutions, Inc., a large billing firm that works with practices throughout the country to optimize operations through appropriate coding and billing, “Most physicians are dreading the change to ICD-10 because the number of codes and level of specificity will increase exponentially.”

Julie Nobles, president of Premiere Medical Billing, echoed Dunn’s concern. “Most physicians I have spoken with are worried about the roll-out of ICD-10 because they are not certain the increased costs and staff hours justify the change to a new and larger set of diagnostic codes.”

Yet, for some physicians, the impending transition is being taken in stride. According to Robert Goldman, M.D., the founding physician of Georgia Hormones, “We wanted to stay ahead of the curve so the transition to ICD-10 would be as streamlined as possible. Our practice coding specialist, as well as all of our physicians, finished a course this year all about ICD-10 and the new diagnosis codes. Even though the list of codes will be the size of ten Manhattan phone books, we are prepared. In fact, Europe has been using ICD-10 codes successfully since 2002.”

AAPC, the nation’s largest training and credentialing organization for medical coding, auditing, compliance and practice management, offers several courses on ICD-10 implementation. According to Rhonda Buckholtz, the organization’s vice president responsible for ICD-10 training and education, “Most often the response we receive from attendees after completing the training is that they no longer fear ICD-10.”

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) has stressed that ICD-10 will provide more specific data than ICD-9 and better reflect current medical practices. CMS, a division of Health and Human Services, indicated that the added detail embedded within ICD-10 codes will inform health care providers and health plans of patient incidence and history, which improves the effectiveness of case management and care coordination functions.

The ICD-10 transition is one example of the many challenges facing medical practices today. Others challenges expressed by physicians include:

• Decreasing reimbursement and increasing costs

• Increasing pressure to join hospital systems or become part of an accountable care organization (ACO) in order to stay viable

• Uncertainty about future of medicine

• Anticipated shortage of physicians as older practitioners retire or physicians leave the profession

• Uncertainty regarding financial future

• Intrusiveness by payers on physician-patient relationship

• Governmental intervention takes time away from patients

• Uncertainty about impact of Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Now more than ever, physicians and other medical professionals are undergoing tremendous changes as they adapt to a continually evolving healthcare landscape. Many physicians have chosen to join a hospital system or become part of an ACO, while others are forging ahead with their own practices. Regardless of the path they choose, all physicians acknowledge that medicine is rapidly evolving and both challenges and potential opportunities lie ahead.