Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Critics decry dated ICD-9.

Hospitals that are anxious to begin using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes are in the same boat as the American Hospital Association and several other influential health care organizations.

The AHA, Federation of American Hospitals and Advanced Medical Technology Association submitted a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan on Sept. 20, urging him to expedite the implementation of ICD-10.

The current Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification  is "becoming more outdated every day," and the National Committee on Vital Statistics said that this version was outdated back in 2003, the letter states. AHA Outlines Payer ICD-9 Problems According to the letter, payers will have more and more difficulty appropriately reimbursing new technologies and providers will face barriers in accurately coding diagnoses, comorbidities and complications without the adoption of ICD-10, the organizations say.

"Medicare's broad road map for the future, which depends on accurate data on the effectiveness of treatments for disease will be impeded," they add.

Physicians could have problems matching the diagnoses with the specific treatment modalities without ICD-10 implementation, the groups maintain.

The letter also drew a line between ICD-10's implementation and the stated future White House goals for the health care sector.

"Additionally, failure to recognize this looming problem will only impede the efforts to achieve the benefits of the President's goal of assuring the use of electronic health records (EHR) in a timely and cost-effective manner," the letter reads.

To read the letter, go to http://www.fahs.com/issues/comment_letters/2005/ICD-10%20McClellan%209_20_05.pdf.