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Industry Notes

Published on Wed May 02, 2012

CMS Proposes One-Year Delay For ICD-10

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?

Well, 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.

  • Get ready for your referral sources and potential patients to check out your patient satisfaction data.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is making Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) data available on Medicare's Home Health Compare website starting April 19, CMS's Lori Teichman said in the agency's April 11 Open Door Forum for home care providers.

"This is the first time that Home Health CAHPS data will be reported," Teichman told forum participants. Sharing the CAHPS data gives people the opportunity to see "home health agency patients' perspectives of care," she said.

HHAs that have reported data for an entire year will be included in the public reporting, Teichman explained. The reporting time period for the HHCAHPS data displayed is October 2010 through September 2011.

  • Medicare won't take any excuses when it comes to correctly submitting CAHPS data, even if your vendor has fallen down on the job.

That's why you need to check that your vendor is submitting the Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) data correctly. "Check if your data submission reports are being submitted on time by your vendor," urged Lori Teichman with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at CMS's April 11 Open Door Forum for home care providers.

You can determine that by clicking on the "For HHAs" tab on the CAHPS website at https://homehealthcahps.org,

Teichman advised. Then pick the data submission report link. Then you won't have to rely on your vendor's word about whether the data is going in on time.

Remember: CMS has put CAHPS data on display on its Home Health Compare website. The data will help consumers "find the home health agency that best meets their needs," Acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner says in a release. "The survey ... will enable valid comparisons among all home health agencies."

Home health agencies have voiced concerns over the survey, however, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. "The length of the survey, overlapping questions in topic areas, and scoring of individual questions in creation of composite scores for topic areas" are a few areas of concern, NAHC's Val Halamandaris says in the trade group's newsletter.

  • Your current and future patients may benefit from new research findings about preventing diabetes.

A lifestyle intervention of reducing fat and calories plus exercising, leading to "modest" weight loss, has proven to reduce the rate of type 2 diabetes in high-risk adults by 58 percent compared to a placebo, says the National Institutes of Health in a release. The study findings have persisted over 10 years. Using the drug metformin has also proven to reduce the rate of type 2 diabetes in the group, NIH adds.

Both interventions save on health care costs and improve outcomes, notes the study published in the April 2012 Diabetes Care. "Lifestyle changes were especially beneficial for people age 60 and older," the NIH release notes.

"These approaches make economic sense," the study's lead author William Herman, director of the Michigan Center for Diabetes Translational Research in Ann Arbor, says in the release.

"The diabetes epidemic, with more than 1.9 million new cases per year in the United States, can be curtailed," says study chair David Nathan, director of the Diabetes Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "We now show that these interventions also represent good value for the money."

Note: For more industry news, see Eli's Home Care Week. Information on subscribing is online at www.elihealthcare.com or by phone at 1-800-874-9180.

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