Home Health & Hospice Week

Don't count on the delay quite yet, coding expert warns.

Home care providers have been wondering how to make contingency plans since the feds announced they'd be delaying the deadline for ICD-10 diagnosis coding, but failed to designate a new implementation date.

Now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has nailed down its proposed new deadline: Oct. 1, 2014. That's one year later than the October 2013 date currently in effect. CMS made the proposal in a rule that also includes other HIPAA-related provisions.

"Many provider groups have expressed serious concerns about their ability to meet the Oct. 1, 2013, compliance date," CMS says in a release. "The proposed change in the compliance date for ICD-10 would give providers and other covered entities more time to prepare and fully test their systems to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition to these new code sets."

Some home care providers are breathing a sigh of relief that they have an extra year to switch to ICD-10. But others tell Eli that they are frustrated that their intensive ICD-10 preparation is getting stalled at this late date.

Don't write the new ICD-10 deadline in pen quite yet, though. "ICD-10-CM is NOT delayed until October 1, 2014," coding expert Lisa Selman-Holman notes on her blog. The new deadline is merely a proposal. "The healthcare industry has the opportunity to comment on the proposal and THEN CMS can publish a final rule," notes Selman-Holman with Selman-Holman & Associates and CoDR -- Coding Done Right.

The billions this postponement is expected to cost providers may stymie the delay. "Only time will tell," Selman-Holman says.