Dive Brief:
- CMS has announced plans to release an ICD-10 "national timeline" to help stakeholders prepare for the new October 1, 2015 deadline.
- The new timeline will include specific timeframes by which CMS wants all stakeholders ready to test. CMS hopes to avoid previous misadventures in which clearinghouses and other vendors were ready for the switchover, but smaller providers were not.
- As things stand, according to a new national survey, 27% of providers will be ready for ICD-10 testing in the third quarter of this year, 14% believe they'll be ready by the fourth quarter, roughly 12% say they'll be prepared by Q1 of 2015, 10% think they'll be ready by Q2 of 2015, and 2.5% will saddle up by Q3 of 2015. That leaves a considerable number of providers scooting in near the deadline.
Dive Insight:
That survey is a clear illustration of why CMS is creating a timeline for the ICD-10 transition. A worrying number of providers are moving slowly toward the goal, and many could be left behind. Sadly, there's a good reason why many providers are so behind; the same survey notes that of organizations not planning to do end-to-end testing, 41% said they didn't know how, 14% said that testing would cost too much, another 14% said testing was unnecessary and 6% said that their business partners won't perform testing with them. CMS hopes that its timeline will help providers structure their ICD-10 efforts and make a smooth transition.