Implementation of the ICD-10 code set will be delayed at least one year, based on a provision in a federal law signed Tuesday that will prevent the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from implementing the new code set before Oct. 1, 2015.
The delay gives physicians a much-needed extra year to prepare for implementation of the costly code set, which is developed by the World Health Organization and adapted for U.S. use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Prior to passage of the new law, physicians only had six months to get ready for the implementation deadline, and those who had not begun preparing their practices would likely face considerable cash-flow problems and other serious administrative issues.
While the AMA did not support the bill, which also adopted a temporary Medicare payment patch in place of long-overdue permanent repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, the delay should help ensure the entire industry is ready for ICD-10 implementation.
Physicians whose software vendors were still in the process of making the necessary upgrades should have more time to catch up with preparations. CMS and others now should be able to conduct broader end-to-end testing and iron out issues that arise prior to implementation, minimizing expected cash-flow interruptions and other disruptions that could hinder the provision of patient care. CMS has estimated that claims denial rates could increase 100-200 percent in the early stages of coding with ICD-10.
Physicians can take advantage of the AMA’s numerous free ICD-10 resources, including tip sheets that offer guidance on completing an impact assessment, determining training needs, conducting testing and more.
“The AMA remains committed to relieving physicians of the crushing administrative burdens and practice disruptions that are anticipated during the scheduled transition to ICD-10,” AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven, MD, said in a statement.
Additional resources and training from the AMA Store can help physicians prepare as well, including a downloadable data file of the complete ICD-10 code set to use in testing practice management systems and a documentation guide that provides essential training. Online documentation training and live training events that will start in May also are available.
While the AMA continues to work to stop ICD-10 implementation, practice management experts caution that physicians should begin preparing their practices now. Such tasks as assessing the practice’s coding-related processes and getting documentation practices up to speed already can be helpful in the existing ICD-9 environment.
Updated at 4/3/2014 at 12:02 PM CDT
