Home Health & Hospice Week

ICD-10 deadline will be postponed -- but for how long?

Just three months ago, Centers for Medi-care & Medicaid Services representatives firmly told providers that the ICD-10 implementation date would not be pushed back beyond Oct. 1, 2013 -- but what a difference a few months makes.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Feb. 16 that the ICD-10 implementation date will indeed be postponed. The agency stated that it "will initiate a process to postpone the date by which certain health care entities have to comply with International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10)."

"ICD-10 codes are important to many positive improvements in our health care system," says HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a statement. 'We have heard from many in the provider community who have concerns about the administrative burdens they face in the years ahead," Sebelius says. "We are committing to work with the provider community to reexamine the pace at which HHS and the nation implement these important improvements to our health care system."

The announcement followed hints that CMS was planning a pushback. On Feb. 14, acting CMS administrator Marilynn Tavenner said she intended to "re-examine the pace at which we implement ICD-10," which would require the agency to go through the standard federal rulemaking process. Tavenner made her comments to great applause at the American Medical Association's National Ad-vocacy Conference, attendees said.

Delay Length Undetermined

Neither HHS nor CMS has announced just how much of a delay will take place. But health care providers are pleased that they'll benefit from some additional time to implement the new diagnosis coding system.

The AMA "appreciates Secretary Sebelius' swift response to address the AMA's serious concerns with ICD-10 implementation," says AMA President Peter Carmel in a statement. "The timing of the ICD-10 transition could not be worse for physicians as they are spending significant financial and administrative resources implementing electronic health records in their practices and trying to comply with multiple quality and health information technology programs that include penalties for noncompliance. We look forward to having a productive dialogue with the administration regarding the impact of ICD-10 and decreasing unnecessary hassles for physicians so they can take care of their patients."

Physicians' "big ruckus about ICD-10" is probably one of the chief reasons for the delay, suspects home health coding expert Lisa Selman-Hol-man of Selman-Holman Associates in Denton, Texas. And in an election year, the Obama administration is likely happy to spread around some regulatory burden reduction, Selman-Holman says on her blog.

Sebelius's announcement seems to fall short of providers' call for a full repeal of ICD-10. However, a slower pace could at least buy time for providers that have not yet considered the impact of ICD-10 on their systems.

Stay on track: Despite the announcement of a slower timeline, you should continue to work toward compliance with the new diagnosis coding system, which appears to still be in place for future implementation, coding experts urge.

Not a fan: Selman-Holman criticizes HHS for implementing the delay. "Continuing to use an antiquated system like ICD-9-CM increases regulatory burden," she claims on her blog. "Payors and providers, including HHS, have spent millions of dollars readying for ICD-10-CM. A delay now will increase the money spent and the time spent."

Selman-Holman wonders if the U.S. may skip ICD-10 and switch directly over to ICD-11, which is scheduled to debut in October 2015.

And don't be surprised if HHS keeps you hanging on the final ICD-10 implementation date. Due to politics, a decision on the final deadline may not come until after the presidential election concludes this year, experts predict.