CMS to Speak with ICD-10 Backers Tuesday

AHIMA and other ICD-10 stakeholders say they want to know when federal officials intend to set a new implementation date for the delayed code set.

Stakeholders and other supporters of ICD-10 are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC Tuesday with a senior official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services with the hope of learning when the federal government is going to act on the oft-delayed medical coding set.

The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, signed into law earlier this month by President Obama, delayed implementation of the ICD-10 code set until at least Oct. 1, 2015. Stakeholders want some sense of a new implementation date when they hear from Denise Buenning with CMS's Office of e-Health Standards and Services. The two-day summit is being organized by the American Health Information Management Association.

CMS Silence on ICD-10 Holds Healthcare Hostage

AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon says ICD-10 stakeholders have been left in the dark ever since the delay was slipped in as part of a bill that delayed implementation of the sustainable growth rate funding formula for Medicare reimbursements.

"We have been trying to keep our eyes and ears attuned to what the news is and we have not gotten anything official," Thomas Gordon said Monday in a telephone interview.

"Perhaps we might hear something (Tuesday). We would like to try to pin them down because we feel it should be no later and we are just assuming it will be Oct. 1 2015. We will definitely be asking those questions."

Thomas Gordon says the delay is somewhat "understandable" because CMS has been preoccupied with the Obamacare rollout over the past several weeks, with departure of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last week, and with the nomination of Sylvia Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as her replacement.

"They've had some turnover there so I can understand with a new secretary coming in she probably wants to get her feet on the ground before things are announced, but maybe we will hear something (Tuesday)," Thomas Gordon said.

For Hospital CFOs, ICD-10 Delay a Costly Disappointment

The silence from HHS has fostered a growing sense of frustration and urgency among ICD-10 stakeholders. Last week, the Coalition for ICD-10 asked HHS to establish Oct. 1, 2015 as the new ICD-10 implementation date. In a letter to CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner, the coalition said the delay has caused great uncertainty across the healthcare industry about the future of ICD-10.

"The delay is going to be disruptive and costly for healthcare delivery innovation, payment reform, public health, and health care spending, and uncertainty on the implementation date only adds to the disruption and cost," the letter stated.

The coalition, comprised of hospitals, health plans, professional associations, hospital and physician office coding experts, vendors and the health information technology community, says it would "work with CMS to identify measurable milestones on the path toward implementation to demonstrate that preparatory work is proceeding smoothly toward successful implementation."

Thomas Gordon says she also hopes to hear from ICD-10 industry leaders at the summit about what they're doing to cope with the delay. "What we are hearing anecdotally is that people are moving ahead, trying to beef up their clinical documentation improvement programs, working with their vendors, educating their physicians and training their staff on ICD-10," she says.

"We want to know if that is really true. We will take some polls. We are trying to take a pulse of the industry, what is going on and how can we help."