Doctors, health plans oppose timeline for transitioning to ICD-10

Representatives from the Medical Group Management Association, the American Medical Association, and America's Health Insurance Plans say three years is not enough time to transition from International Classification of Diseases Version 9 to ICD-10. The Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a proposed rule that would require healthcare providers to adopt ICD-10 code sets for electronic health transactions by October 2011. AHIP and MGMA said their organizations support transitioning to ICD-10 but object to the proposed schedule. They are pushing for a two-year transition to version 5010 of the X12 transaction standards—a few months more than HHS' proposed deadline.