Dive Brief:

• A survey of 650 hospital leaders by Black Book Rankings has found that 47% expect to outsource their coding efforts by Oct. 1, 2015, the deadline for switching from ICD-9 to ICD-10. 19% are already outsourcing their coding work.
• Meanwhile, 51% of Black Book respondents said they're prepared to implement ICD-10 without outsourcing their coding efforts.
• Researchers said a lack of in-house IT expertise, growing need to integrate varied systems and pressure to meet both meaningful use and ICD-10 are helping to fuel the growth of the global healthcare IT outsourcing market, which should hit $50.4 billion by 2018.

Dive Insight:

It makes sense that many hospitals are planning to outsource coding. Not only will outsourcing prove a lifesaver in meeting next year's deadline, it can also offer a big efficiency boost. In fact, researchers found that 88% of 200-plus bed hospitals surveyed about outsourced clinical documentation improvement efforts said they've realized at least $1 million in gains. That $1 million came from growth in appropriate revenue and proper reimbursements due to outsourced coding efforts even prior to ICD-10 implementation.

Meanwhile, providers seem uncertain as to what will become of their revenues once ICD-10 is in place. 20% of providers surveyed by the eHealth Initiative and the American Health Information Management Association said they were skeptical about how ICD-10 will affect their reimbursement. 33% of those skeptical providers think efficiency will suffer under ICD-10, while one in five predicted that the switchover will improve reimbursement efficiency. It seems there's little to do but wait and see on this one.

Recommended Reading:

FierceHealthIT:Hospitals increasingly plan to outsource coding efforts