Feds Stonewall ICD-10 Summit

On the first day of an AHIMA-organized summit, the Coalition for ICD-10 picked up a strong ally, America's Health Insurance Plans, but got no new information from federal officials about an implementation date.

ICD-10 advocates attending a two-day summit in Washington, D.C., got stonewalled by federal officials who declined Tuesday to provide a new start-up date for the medical coding set.

Godwin Odia, who is leading the Medicaid ICD-10 implementation for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated stakeholders on the status of Medicaid readiness at the federal and state level, but didn't go much beyond that.

CMS to Speak with ICD-10 Backers Tuesday

"He basically read a script and said 'don't ask me any other questions. I can't answer anything,'" said Lynne Thomas Gordon, CEO of the American Health Information Management Association, which organized the summit. "I kept asking 'When? When?' and he kept saying 'stay tuned.' It was very scripted."

"The intent of his talk sounded like we are moving ahead. Medicaid sometimes gets a bad rap because people say they aren't ready. Odia said 'we are ready.' He was trying to reassure everybody."

The stakeholders also heard from Donna Pickett, a medical classification administrator with the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics. "She also had the same line: 'I can't tell you anything,'" Thomas Gordon said.

The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, signed into law 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.

Also Tuesday, the Coalition for ICD-10 gained a strong partner with the announcement that America's Health Insurance Plans has joined the industry's lead advocacy group.

"The implementation of ICD-10 is a critical step on the path to a more sustainable health system for consumers," AHIP President/CEO Karen Ignagni said in a media release. "We look forward to working with all members of the Coalition to help advance this important transition."

In addition to AHIP, Coalition for ICD-10 members include: American Health Information Management Association; American Hospital Association; BlueCross BlueShield Association; College of Healthcare Information Management Executives; WellPoint; Siemens Health Services; and 3M Health Information Systems.

"AHIP has always been for no delay and we are glad to have them on the coalition," Thomas Gordon said. "Everyone talks about end-to-end testing and 'are we ready?' so it's nice to make sure the payers are with you."