ICD-10 delay becomes a reality
4/2/2014: The bill that would delay ICD-10 for, minimally, one year was signed into law. ICD-10 cannot be implemented by CMS until sometime on or after October 1, 2015. Mixed opinions are sure to follow as a new start date has not been established.
The delay of ICD-10 is causing both angst and relief for the thousands of physicians and hospitals who recently received the news about the delay. Offices that were prepared and took steps to teach their employees (by enrolling in classes and paid seminars) are now forced to wait to put these new tools into action. While the delay was seemingly judged by the overwhelming response to “unreadiness” , most professional organizations like the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) were strongly in its favor. AHIMA even wrote an open letter to Marilyn Tevenner (Administrator at CMS) supporting the “hard” deadline for this year. On the other side, in a 2/2/14 article the American Medical Association (AMA) was so opposed to the deadline they proposed the following call to action: “These numbers are too important to ignore. Share on social media, and help us #StopICD10” (full article here)
Both AHIMA and the AMA have resources for providers. AHIMA is holding a legislative review webinar to help understand the delay. The AMA offers resources to get you office ready here.
As always, STI is committed to keeping your office ready and has provided videos and newsletters to keep your office on the right track.
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4/1/2014: In a vote at 6:30 last night, the Senate passed the bill that would, among other things, extend the start of ICD-10 for at least one year. The bill has not been finalized yet, but is getting closer to final approval.
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Original post 3/26/14
At just past noon today, the US House of Representatives agreed by voice vote to pass the bill that would extend the deadline for the ICD-10 switch to October 1 2015. The bill states (section 212) that:
The Secretary of Health and Human Services may not, prior to October 1, 2015, adopt ICD–10 code sets as the standard for code sets under section 1173(c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–2(c)) and section 162.1002 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations.
This delay, which will get split reactions if it passes, will allow physicians and vendors more time to prepare for the transition.
STI Computer Services is committed to the October 1, 2014 due date and has already positioned itself to implement changes to the software even if this bill does not pass in the Senate. If you haven’t seen the changes already, you can watch our video on the ICD-10 transition here.
You can FOLLOW the progress of the bill on congress.gov