Health Information Management

Providers see only minor productivity declines after ICD-10 implementation, according to survey

APCs Insider, January 22, 2016

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 By Steven Andrews

A decrease in staff productivity has been the top challenge for providers after ICD-10 was implemented, but relatively few organizations have seen a significant decrease in productivity, according to a recent survey from Navicure.
 
Despite nearly half of the participants (48%) noting a productivity decline as the top issue, only 13% of administrative staff and 15% of clinical staff saw a significant decrease. Another 46% of administrative staff and 42% of clinical staff didn’t see much of an impact, and the remaining respondents saw a minor impact or didn’t know of one.
 
The survey included 360 participants representing a broad range of specialties and sizes, with 60% from organizations with one to 10 providers.
 
Beyond productivity, 20% of respondents said revenue disruption was their top concern. However, 60% of organizations did not see any impact on monthly revenue following the transition. In terms of denial rates, 89% of respondents saw either no change or an increase of less than 10%.
 
All of these statistics are overwhelmingly positive for the industry, which was subject to constant fear mongering from organizations such as the AMA in the months before the transition, with predictions of massive productivity declines leading to insurmountable revenue problems for countless providers.
 
Predictions about how much providers would spend to get ready for implementation varied widely, depending on the source. An AMA-funded report from Nachimson Advisors estimated small physician practices would spend approximately $57,000-$200,000 to get ready. Even though this was already questioned, the actual results from the survey show a much different story.
 
Half of the respondents spent less than $10,000 on training and software updates, with another 14% spending between $10,000-$50,000. Only 5% spent more than $50,000, while 20% weren’t sure how much their organization spent.
 
And organizations are confident they’re coding correctly. Nearly all of the respondents (99%) reported sending the most specific ICD-10 code either all of the time or sometimes.
 
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