HIT Voices: The Policy Challenges Facing Health IT Leaders (Part 1)

They should go full-scale ahead. At the end of the day, there is always going to be something else. You know what you know now, so you should plan for it. They must proceed. The harder parts will be the policies they have to put in place, so if they don’t start working now, they won’t be comfortable with those policies. And we’ll have the same noise we have now, which is I just record my measures; I don’t do anything about it. Stage 2 triggers a lot of change in thinking and operations and policies, so if we don’t get that done, all we’ve done is put in technology.

How top-of-mind is the transition to the ICD-10 code-set for hospitals and healthcare CIOs? Is the Oct. 1, 2014, realistic?

I think it’s a tough stretch. It’s going to be tough. If you look at the readiness of organizations, certainly there are technology solutions that CIOs have been working on. But there is still a lot of variation. What we’re going to find is people are going to choose the level of specificity that they can handle. I think we’re absolutely in the not ready, but I do believe in setting a date and starting the effective date. You can start to see what’s happening.