BISMARCK, ND, November 2, 2011 – Daymarck, a leading provider of home health care coding and auditing services, today announced the results of the first ICD-10 survey dedicated to home care professionals. Survey results revealed home care professionals are unprepared for ICD-10 conversion in October 2013. According to responses from more than 235 home care professionals, 76% have either not begun planning for ICD-10 conversion or are in preliminary stages of planning. Only 3% have developed a formal plan and are beginning to implement.

Survey responses also revealed 70% have not begun to train employees on ICD-10. Twenty five percent have begun to train just a few key staff members and only 2% have had mass training.

“The results of our survey illustrate that many are either underestimating the significance of ICD-10 conversion or perhaps don’t have the necessary resources to take action,” says Nick Dobrzelecki, founder and chief executive officer of Daymarck. “It’s critical for home care organizations to be in full planning and preparing mode so they can combat the negative effects conversion will likely bring.”

Other key findings include:

• 59% of respondents feel converting to ICD-10 will be more problematic than converting to OASIS-C. 55% of those respondents think it will be extremely more problematic.
• 57% of respondents feel ICD-10 will cause a decrease in productivity for both clinician and administrative staff. The average response for how long this decrease in productivity lasting was 7 months.
• 46% of respondents were either not sure or do not think their vendors are appropriately preparing for ICD-10 conversion.

The biggest challenge revealed by respondents was educating clinicians and providers on the needs for more specific documentation (46%), followed by learning and implementing ICD-10 sets (28%). The biggest benefit of ICD-10 revealed was more-accurate payment (56%), followed by improved disease management (39%).

Commenting on the survey results, Ken Hooper, principal of HC Healthcare Consulting LLC, said, “These findings are not surprising nor inconsistent with hospitals, but they are worrisome because people are behind the power curve. I’d also be interested to see what respondents are considering ‘preliminary planning,’ which may only consist of reading something about ICD-10.”

The survey was conducted both online and in-person at the 2011 National Association of Home Care and Hospice Convention in Las Vegas, NV from September 13, 2011 to October 7, 2011. Respondents spanned all titles including clinicians, coders, clerical and branch and corporate administration. Organizations represented include for-profit corporations, non-profit corporations, religious affiliated, government entities, hospital based organizations and consultant companies of all sizes. Over the coming weeks, Daymarck plans to take a deeper dive into the results of each question, revealing the implications for the industry on its blog. It also plans to conduct future ICD-10 surveys to measure the progress of preparations leading up to conversion in 2013.

To learn more about the survey results or to discuss ICD-10 conversion, please call 937.885.5918. For more information on Daymarck, please visit www.daymarck.com.

About Daymarck
Exclusively focused on the home healthcare industry, Daymarck makes getting medical coding advice and service as easy and pain-free as possible. Founded by home healthcare veterans in response to the current and future major regulatory changes, Daymarck offers home healthcare agency leaders compliance, peace of mind, efficiencies and cost savings that help home healthcare agencies grow and provide the best patient care. Services include home health medical coding outsourcing, auditing services, enterprise coding software and coding education. For more information, call 937.885.5918, visit www.daymarck.com, www.facebook.com/daymarck or www.twitter.com/daymarck.