St. Louis-based himagine solutions surveyed more than 140 HIM leadership professionals to better evaluate trends, concerns and opportunities in the HIM marketplace.
Below are seven key insights from the company's inaugural HIM Benchmark Report:
1. Of respondents, 60 percent indicated they outsource a portion of their coding needs.
2. Of those organizations, 50 percent reported they work with one or two vendors and 45 percent outsource coding needs to seven or more vendors.
3. About 16 percent of respondents used offshore coding services vendors.
4. Respondents ranked managing financial metrics, coder productivity and quality as their biggest challenges in managing HIM departments.
5. Fifty-six percent do not currently utilize computer assisted coding technology, however 75 percent of those respondents anticipated purchasing CAC software within the next year.
6. Of respondents 32 percent ranked coding accuracy as the main metric used to measure coder performance.
7. Clinical documentation improvement programs operate within 64 percent of departments surveyed, however 37 percent of departments indicate using natural language processing tools as part of CDI workflow.