Most health care organizations have started planning or implementing their transition to ICD-10 code sets, according to a survey by the American Health Information Management Association, Government Health IT reports (Anderson, Government Health IT, 9/21).
The survey, which was conducted in August, is based on responses from 639 AHIMA members (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 9/21).
Background on ICD-10 Transition
For about 30 years, health care providers have used ICD-9 code sets for electronic health care transactions. However, ICD-9 code sets no longer can be expanded effectively to include codes for new diseases and procedures.
Health care providers have until Oct. 1, 2013, to adopt new ICD-10 code sets. The switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets means that health care providers and insurers will have to change out nearly 15,000 codes for about 68,000 codes (iHealthBeat, 9/19).
Key Findings of AHIMA Survey
According to the AHIMA survey, 85% of respondents said their health care organization had started working on an ICD-10 conversion plan, up from 62% in 2010.
The survey also found that:
- 49% of respondents said their organization had started making changes based on an ICD-10 readiness evaluation;
- 18% of respondents said their organization had developed an ICD-10 implementation budget; and
- 8% of respondents said their organization had completed an assessment of the ICD-10-related educational needs of its staff members (Modern Healthcare, 9/21).
According to the report, some respondents said they faced hurdles in transitioning to ICD-10 code sets because of:
- Insufficient resources; or
- A lack of executive commitment (Government Health IT, 9/21).