“We’re not ready. The biggest challenge is time and money. We have to do so many other things – there are so many things to change. We’ll need meetings with physicians. It will require lots of training, re-education and physician cooperation."

“We’ve hired a documentation specialists. She has signed up for ICD-10 boot camp. IT support will come from national (Veterans Administration). Productivity is what I’m worried about. It’s hard to pay for coders to go to training and bring in new coders. I’m worried about the vendors. Are they going to be caught up? Will they have enough staffing support available?”

"Every hospital will have to do dual coding to a degree. Our sense is we have three groups of people. There are early adopters; a group asking a lot of questions now and conducting payer assessments; and the bulk at the very beginning. It’s a lot of pressure – a lot of things. But, if they wait to the last minute – there’s not an Easy Button.”

"The biggest challenge will be being able to get your bills out the door efficiently. The real issue is you have this base of coders. They have these ICD-9 codes memorized. Now, you’re going to erase the slate and go to ICD-10. They are going to have to take the hit. People are going to have to leverage technology. It’s interesting to see how some hospitals have embraced it and so many have not. I think we will see a real panic over the next year.”