Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert

Don't slow down your preparations, experts advise.

Have you been waiting and wondering how to make contingency plans ever since HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on Feb. 16 that the government would delay the deadline for the planned ICD-10 conversion, but failed to designate a new implementation date? You'll be happy to hear that the latest word on the oddly controversial change offers you something to aim for.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a proposed new deadline for the transition: Oct. 1, 2014. That's one year later than the October 2013 date currently in effect. CMS announced the proposal on April 9 as part of a rule that also includes other HIPAA-related provisions.

The American Medical Association, which was a vocal proponent of an ICD-10 implementation delay, cheered the news. "The American Medical Association and physicians across the nation appreciate that CMS has proposed delaying the ICD-10 implementation date to October 1, 2014," said Peter W. Carmel, MD, the AMA's president. "The postponement is the first of many steps that regulators need to take to reduce the number of costly, time-consuming regulatory burdens that physicians are shouldering."

The American Health Information Management Association, on the other hand had been urging CMS not to put the brakes on the existing transition date citing potential increased costs as well as the adverse impact on healthcare data of continuing to use "the outdated and broken ICD-9-CM system."

"Our preference is for no delay in ICD-10 implementation and compliance," said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, FACHE, in a release. "But we are gratified that HHS is recognizing the hard work and efforts already expended in the implementation process and has decided to keep the extension to essentially the shortest period possible -- just one year." AHIMA had previously expressed concern about the potential delay and continues to encourage providers to remain focused on their implementation efforts.

"The transition to ICD-10 is inevitable and remains the future for coding classification systems. We are sorry to see that our members and organizations following HHS' initial calendar may suffer from the delay, as will our many higher education colleges and universities that changed their curricula to meet this same requirement date," Thomas Gordon said.

"ICD-10-CM is not delayed until October 1, 2014," coding expert Lisa Selman-Holman cautions. 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 in Denton, Texas.