No More Delays for ICD-10

No delays for ICD-10, says Tavenner at HIMSS 2014
Originally posted by: Daniel R. Verdon, Medical Economics
There will be no more delays to the October 1 deadline to implement the International Classification of Diseases-10th revision (ICD-10) coding system.
That was the message from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner during Thursday’s keynote presentation to the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2014 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida.
Tavenner made the remarks to thousands of attendees during the Thursday morning session, addressing a range of topics from fee-for-service to the progress made following last fall’s faulty rollout of HealthCare.gov.
In addressing the ICD-10 implementation timeline, Tavenner says, “Let’s face it, we have delayed this more than once, and it is time to move on. We have already delayed the adoption standard, a standard the rest of the world has adopted many years ago, and we have delayed it several times, most recently last year. There will be no change in the deadline for ICD-10.”
Earlier this month, the American Medical Association (AMA) petitioned CMS for a delay in ICD-10, due to financial and administrative costs that they say medical practices aren’t ready for. According to the AMA, small practices can expect costs ranging from $56,639 to $226,105 to implement ICD-10. According to a February survey by the Medical Management Group Association, 79% of physicians report that they haven’t begun ICD-10 implementation, or were only “somewhat ready.”
Despite media reports questioning whether electronic health records (EHR) vendors and public and commercial payers will even be ready for the ICD-10 conversion, Tavenner says CMS will be.
In 2011, CMS began installing and testing system changes to support ICD-10, Tavenner says. As of October 2013, the service systems at CMS were ready and a range of testing will ensue. CMS is conducting a Medicare testing period from March 3 to March 7 so that providers, billing companies, and clearinghouses can determine whether CMS will accept their claims under ICD-10.