2012 ICD-10 Industry Survey
In October 2014, practices throughout the United States will undergo a major transition – changing from ICD-9, with a current set of 17,000 diagnosis codes, to ICD-10, with a set of approximately 141,000 codes. In 2012, NueMD surveyed physicians, office managers, billers and coding experts to better understand the sentiments of healthcare professionals throughout the country. We reached out to both clients and non-clients, and received completed surveys from 480 respondents.
The charts provide an in-depth look at perceptions and opinions among key audience segments prior to the implementation of ICD-10. NueMD will conduct a follow-up survey following the ICD-10 integration to measure whether the perceived challenges were in fact realized or if the transition proved to be easier than anticipated.
We invite your feedback and hope you find this information useful.
So, where did our survey respondents come from? This map shows the geographical location of all respondents, who represented 47 of 50 states.
Here is the break down of business types and responder business roles. The majority of respondents (61.9%) work in 1-3 physician medical practices. 33.4% of respondents are in a direct patient care role (DO, MD, NP, RN, etc.).
There isn't a shortage of options when it comes to practice management systems and the survey results reflected just that. Of the 13 different practice management systems listed, NueMD made up the majority (27.3%) of responses. Responses in the "Other" category (37%) included more than 100 different practice management vendors.
Surprisingly, 12.5% of respondents wanted more government regulation of healthcare information technology standards. In contrast, 45% wanted less or no government regulation of these standards.
The survey revealed that software vendors were the most trusted source for information surrounding ICD-10 implementation, while the American Medical Association (AMA) was the second most trusted source. Interestingly, only 8.9% of respondents trusted the government most for information on new standards. Medical practices will be looking to their software vendors for guidance during this transition.
Even though ICD-10 is a government mandated change, the government trails software vendors, clearinghouses and payers for primary burden of responsibility for a successful transition to ICD-10. Software vendors are viewed as having the most overall responsibility more than any other party.
There are definitely mixed emotions regarding the new ICD-10 coding standards. More than 46% of respondents did not agree with the current ICD-10 coding standards -- 30% felt that there should be no transition at all and more than 16% thought that the coding standards should be abridged. Less than 25% of respondents considered themselves satisfied with the current coding standards.
The majority of responders are either significantly or highly concerned about the impact that the ICD-10 transition will have on their business.
Responders identified claims processing as their primary area of concern. Implementing a new complex code set could potentially lead to a decrease in reimbursements, at least until practices become more familiar with ICD-10 codes. There is also concern regarding the added cost and additional training that might be required to implement the new coding system.
As we get closer to the ICD-10 transition, thoughts and opinions on the matter may begin to change, especially as practices become more familiar and comfortable with the new code set. We are optimistic that practices' concerns regarding ICD-10 will diminish over time. For more information, check out the ICD-10 Resource Page. Thanks for reading!
