According to research from Kansas City-based Integrated Healthcare Strategies, a national healthcare consulting firm, more hospitals have begun to staff changes based on the ICD-10 transition. The research, the sixth variation of the firm’s Salary Increase, Incentive, and Benefit Updates Survey, states nearly 60 percent of the respondents reported that they anticipate some type of staffing change based on ICD-10.

In addition, 53.6 percent of the respondents are expecting to hire more coders, another 23.2 percent are anticipating more coder turnover, and another 23.2 percent are anticipating other changes such as implementing more training programs.

According to the study, 37.8 percent of the respondents are using some kind of physician alignment criteria in their incentive plans.  The most popular of these goals is “Meeting CMS Quality Standards.”  The next two most common criteria are “Physician use of electronic patient records” and “Readmission Rates.”

Along with results on ICD-10 and physician alignment, the survey indicated that nearly 90 percent of hospitals and health systems are either leaving 2012 salary increase budgets unchanged from 2011 or increasing budgets from 2011.  The salary increases for executives, middle management, and staff-level employees are at levels below historical trends. Still, the researchers found that budgeted salary increases are slightly higher than the levels reported in earlier surveys conducted by the firm.