Health information technology developer Cerner Corp. expects the congressionally imposed delay of the move to ICD-10 codes will be good for business.
“We think the delay in ICD-10 will be a slight benefit,” Cerner President Zane Burke said Thursday during a call discussing the Kansas City, Mo.-based company's first-quarter earnings.
Many organizations had been putting off technology purchases to focus on the looming Oct. 1, 2014 launch date for the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codes. Now, Burke said, “they're looking at ways to accelerate other projects.”
Sales upticks could come in revenue-cycle management products, as well as from clinical systems for ambulatory care providers because some new physician-documentation requirements are amenable to software upgrades, Burke said.
Even with ICD-10 on schedule, business was good in the first quarter.
Overall, Cerner reported that its first-quarter net earnings rose 8.6% to $119.5 million compared with the same period in 2013. Revenue for the quarter was $784.8 million, up 15.4% from the first quarter of 2013.
The company reported 1 in 4 customer contracts it signed during the period were with new customers. Burke said 13 of those contracts were for amounts greater than $10 million.
Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn
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