CMS Poised to Announce ICD-10 Implementation Date

A two-day summit organized by the American Health Information Management Association has ended, and ICD-10 stakeholders say they are still waiting to hear from federal officials on a firm implementation date.

A federal official involved in the ICD-10 launch couldn't give a room full of stakeholders a firm date on for the new implementation of the medical code set, but suggested on Wednesday that an announcement is imminent.

Denise Buenning, acting deputy director with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of e-Health Standards and Services reportedly told attendees at a two-day ICD-10 summit held in Washington, DC, that a firm date for the implementation would be forthcoming.

Feds Stonewall ICD-10 Summit

"She said they are working on getting the word out and that the regulatory language is being drafted," said Lynne Thomas Gordon, CEO of the American Health Information Management Association, which organized the summit. "[Buenning] kept checking her cell phone to see if she would be able to make some sort of announcement but she wasn't able to. My guess is its going to be Oct. 1, 2015. That's when everything switches over for CMS."

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 had hoped to get a firm date for the new implementation when Buenning spoke Wednesday afternoon.

The delay was made public just hours before the bill passed the House in late March, and since then, CMS has seemingly lowered a cone of silence over the process.

CMS Silence on ICD-10 Holds Healthcare Hostage

The only public acknowledgement of the delay came Wednesday in a brief release on the CMS website which read: "With enactment of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, CMS is examining the implications of the ICD-10 provision and will provide guidance to providers and stakeholders soon. This provision in the statute reads as follows: "The Secretary of Health and Human Services may not, prior to October 1, 2015, adopt ICD-10 code sets as the standard for codes sets under section 1173 (c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d-2 (c)) and section 162.1002 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations."