ICD-10 Delay No License to Chill

To healthcare executives charged with meeting the compliance deadline for ICD-10, last week's announcement must have come as sweet relief.  The heavy yoke of the impending deadline was mercifully lifted by Health and Human Services Department Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

The reasons behind the move had less to do with concerns about any technological hurdles than "about the administrative burdens [healthcare providers] face in the years ahead. We are committing to work with the provider community to re-examine the pace at which HHS and the nation implement these important improvements to our healthcare system," Sebelius explained in a media statement.

So CIOs and their colleagues are, for now, off the hook for ICD-10. But they're still responsible for a great deal of other important work including the

• implementation of electronic medical records
• pursuit of meaningful use attestation
• continual responsibilities associated with protecting patient data and adhering to HIPAA and HITECH compliance
• implementation of  computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems

None of these tasks is simple or inexpensive, federal monetary incentives notwithstanding.  In fact, among healthcare executives, information technology is one of the top three drivers of health costs, the HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey 2012 shows.

Being handed an extension on ICD-10 may feel liberating today.  But wise leaders will take a lesson from  the words of Michelle Mahan, Vice President and CFO, Frederick Memorial Regional Health System, Frederick, MD.

Some, she says ,"may not totally appreciate the enormity of [the] task, and that might be something that comes back to bite them."

Mahan served as a panelist in a roundtable discussion of costs incorporated into an Impact Analysis report titled ICD-10: Skating on Thin Margins. The roundtable met before the deadline extension was announced, but  Mahan's words resonate with meaning.  This is not the time to put ICD-10 plans on the shelf. 

Rather, it is time to re-assess your team's readiness, and as soon as possible, to modify your plans. Otherwise, with time and neglect , ICD-10 will again come to feel like a yoke.

See Also:
ICD-10: It's Later Than You Think