Half Of Small & Mid-Sized Hospitals Unprepared For ICD-10 Transition

A survey of hospitals found that about half of small and mid-sized hospitals in the United States are unprepared to transition from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 code sets to the ICD-10 code sets by October 1, 2014. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) advised hospitals to start preparing in 2012 and start ICD 10 testing in 2013. About 20% have not begun education or training for the transition, and 55% have not started training their coding staff. Two-thirds of hospitals plan to start ICD-10 testing during 2014. The findings were . . .