Procrastination continues to run rampant when it comes to the ICD-10 transition. The latest evidence comes courtesy of survey results unveiled this week by healthcare revenue IT vendor Health Revenue Assurance Holdings that show 20 percent of responding small- and mid-sized hospitals have yet to start any education or training for the shift, which has a deadline of Oct. 1, 2014.
“The shift from ICD-9 to ICD-10 is equivalent to learning another language; it will not be as easy as flipping a switch,” HRAA CEO Andrea Clark said in a statement. “[Health information management] coders must be exposed and then trained on the fundamentals of ICD-10 to ensure that a hospital’s revenue system remains intact and that millions will not be left on the table when the transition takes place.”