Coalition Wants New ICD-10 Implementation Date Pronto

The Coalition for ICD-10, a broad-based health care industry advocacy group, recently called on Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish October 1, 2015 as the new ICD-10 implementation date. In a letter to CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner, the Coalition noted that the third delay of ICD-10 adoption, resulting from Congressional passage of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, has caused great uncertainty across the health care industry about the future of the ICD-10 coding standard.

“We urge that this delay not extend past October 2015, and that HHS announce October 1, 2015, as the new implementation date for ICD-10 as soon as possible,” the letter states. “The delay is going to be disruptive and costly for health care delivery innovation, payment reform, public health, and health care spending, and uncertainty on the implementation date only adds to the disruption and cost.”

Noting the enormous amount of time, effort, and resources that have been expended by its member in preparing for the transition to ICD-10, the Coalition's letter declared the organization’s intent to work with HHS and its various agencies to ensure a smooth transition on October 1, 2015. In particular, the letter expressed the Coalition’s willingness to “work with CMS to identify measurable milestones on the path toward implementation to demonstrate that preparatory work is proceeding smoothly toward successful implementation.”

The Coalition for ICD-10 is an alliance of hospitals, health plans, professional associations, hospital and physician office coding experts, vendors and the HIT community united in support of US adoption of the ICD-10 coding standard. The Coalition for ICD-10 promotes the critical importance of ICD-10 to improving quality measurement, public health surveillance, clinical research, and health care payment through research, education, advocacy, and mobilization.

Source: Coalition for ICD-10