The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) has released its latest ICD-10 industry readiness survey results, and it's not pretty. The healthcare industry is falling behind in preparing for ICD-10 compliance.

That assessment comes after about 2,600 providers, health plans and vendors completed the WEDI survey in February. Readiness was judged based upon respondents' progress on completing impact assessments:

• Nearly 1/2 of the provider respondents indicated that they did not know when they would complete their impact assessment.
• Although 1/3 of providers expected to begin external testing in 2013, another 1/2 responded that they did not know when testing would occur.
• Most health plans do not expect to begin external testing until 2013.
• Over 1/3 of health plans have completed their assessment, but 1/4 are less than halfway done.
• About 1/2 of vendors are less than halfway complete with product development.

WEDI will continue to conduct readiness surveys and submit the results to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.