A bill pushing the ICD 10 implementation date back to 2015 is under consideration in the Senate
Just last month, a top administrator from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reassured health care providers and insurance companies that the ICD 10 implementation would go forward as scheduled with no further delays. However, legislators have made that administrator eat her words by drafting a “doc fix” proposal to address issues with Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula. This proposal would delay ICD 10 compliance requirements until October 1, 2015. The proposal was passed by the House on March 27 and is currently under consideration in the Senate.
Industry Reaction to Proposed Delay
Many health plan providers, medical facilities, and physicians oppose any further delay to ICD 10 implementation. ICD 10 has already been delayed once from 2013 to 2014, and a further delay could cost the industry anywhere from $1 billion to $6.6 billion according to CMS. In addition, it will limit the effectiveness and usefulness of electronic health records. The CEO of the College of Healthcare Information Executives stated that to delay ICD 10 would discredit the huge investments already made to upgrade systems and retrain staff across the country.
However, other industry experts point out that not all health plan providers and medical facilities have finished making these investments. Physician practices, being smaller entities, are especially prone to lagging behind in the conversion efforts. In this light, the delay could be seen as a necessary measure to enable more physician practices to get up to speed with the new system, which nearly quintuples the number of codes available to describe patient conditions and treatments.
Let HCC Coders Help You Weather the Storm
Regardless of what is ultimately decided regarding the implementation date for the new ICD 10 code set, HCC Coders can help. We can pair your company with highly trained and accurate coding professionals who can continue working in ICD 9 right up until the compliance date, whenever that may be, and then switch effortlessly to ICD 10. We can also provide software which will facilitate the transfer of medical records and completed coding documentation between your staff and our coders in a timely and well-organized manner. You can rely on us to handle the coding end of things so you can focus on serving your patients. Please contact us today to learn more about our services.