More bad news on the ICD-10 implementation front.
The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (NCHICA) have conducted two rounds of end-to-end ICD-10 testing. How to describe the results? Holt Anderson, executive director of NCHICA called them “scary” when talking to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) last week.
According to Fierce Health IT, results from the first test were only 55 percent accurate for 20 dual-coded and peer reviewed scenarios. There was a slight improvement – the second test saw 63 percent accuracy.
However, worker productivity dropped by a startling 50 percent. Coders went from averaging four medical records per hour with ICD-9 to only two records per hour with ICD-10. Anderson is quoted on this decrease in Government Health IT. He incredulously asks, “Can you lose that kind of productivity?”
According to the Government Health IT article, the people tested were considered top coders. “We selected some of the best of the best coders in these organizations,” Anderson is quoted as saying. After peer review, it was discovered that these top coders were not even coding correctly in ICD-9, let alone in ICD-10.
Anderson’s advice for providers? This is a cash flow issue, he says. Providers need to “group up” and “get on it.” He has reason to be alarmed. Government Health IT points us to a June MGMA study that found that 55 percent of physicians have not begun ICD-10 implementation.
