At the American Medical Association Advocacy Conference on Tuesday, acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said the agency will consider extending the timeline for ICD-10 implementation, Modern Healthcare reports (Zigmond, Modern Healthcare, 2/14).
Background
U.S. health care organizations are working to transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets to accommodate codes for new diseases and procedures. The switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets means that health care providers and insurers will have to change out about 14,000 codes for about 69,000 codes.
Under the current timeline, health care providers and insurers have until Oct. 1, 2013, to adopt new ICD-10 code sets.
In November 2011, AMA's House of Delegates approved a resolution pledging to block the transition to ICD-10 code sets, saying the health care industry already is overburdened by requirements under the federal health reform law and health IT incentive programs.
Earlier this month, James Madara -- executive vice president and CEO of the American Medical Association -- sent a letter asking HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to stop the federally mandated implementation of the ICD-10 coding system and re-evaluate the timelines associated with several federal health IT initiatives (iHealthBeat, 2/3).
Tavenner's Comments
Tavenner said, "There's concern that folks can't get their work done around [health IT adoption], their work done around ICD-10 implementation, and be ready for (the health law's insurance) exchanges."
She said, "I'm committing today to work with you to re-examine the pace at which we implement ICD-10," adding, "I want to work together to ensure that we implement ICD-10 in a way that (meets its) goals while recognizing your concerns."
Tavenner said CMS would formally announce its plan to propose new regulations "within the next few days" (Pecquet, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 2/14).
Reaction
According to Government Health IT, "It's incredibly unlikely that Tavenner or CMS would actually stop ICD-10 in its tracks, for a whole host of political reasons." It notes that CMS could face lawsuits, given that many health care providers and payers have already spent millions preparing for the new coding system.
Chris Chute -- head of Mayo Clinic's bioinformatics division and chair of the World Health Organization's ICD-11 Revision Steering Group -- said, "We're all way too far down this pike for somebody, anybody, even the government to say, 'Oh, we were just kidding, let’s stop this foolishness and skip to the next rev.”
According to Government Health IT, the most CMS likely can do is offer a compliance delay (Sullivan, Government Health IT, 2/14).