AMA Calls for Further Delay to ICD-10 Compliance Deadline

From Modern Healthcare

Last week, the American Medical Association sent a letter to acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner asking the federal government to further delay the compliance date for the transition to ICD-10 code sets to Oct. 1, 2015, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 5/11).

Background

U.S. health care organizations are working to transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets to accommodate codes for new diseases and procedures. The switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets means that health care providers and insurers will have to change out about 14,000 codes for about 69,000 codes.

In April, HHS announced that it would delay the deadline for complying with ICD-10 standards by one year, to Oct. 1, 2014.

HHS said it decided to push back the compliance date partly in response to health care providers’ concerns that they would not be able to meet the initial deadline (iHealthBeat, 5/10).

The comment period on the new ICD-10 compliance date ends May 17.

AMA’S Comments

In the letter, AMA Executive Vice President James Madara urged the federal government to allow a two-year extension of the ICD-10 compliance deadline because physicians are “overwhelmed with the simultaneous implementation of multiple health IT programs.”

In addition, Madara said that “if stakeholders cannot reach consensus on this matter during this two-year period, then the move to ICD-10 should be postponed indefinitely”