Docs Stalling on ICD10 AGAIN -- TELL YOUR SENATOR to VOTE NO TOMORROW!

Modern Healthcare Business   House 'doc-fix' bill delays ICD-10 by at least a year By Joseph Conn  Posted: March 26, 2014 - 2:15 pm ET Tags: ICD-10, Information Technology, Legislation, Marilyn Tavenner, Policy, Regulation, Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) (Story updated at 4:15 p.m. Eastern time.) PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR BY EMAIL, FAX, PHONE - LOCAL OFFICE & WASHINGTON D.C. OFFICE TO "STOP THE DOC-FIX -- GO WITH ICD10!" VOTE NO ON FRIDAY! CLICK HERE to contact your U.S. Senator The implementation date of the nationwide conversion to theICD-10 family of diagnostic and procedural codes would be delayed by at least a year under a House Ways and Means Committee bill aimed at providing the annual fix to the physician sustainable-growth rate formula. The ICD-10 switch is scheduled to occur Oct. 1, 2014. But a single sentence in the proposed legislation says, “The Secretary of Health and Human Service may not, prior to Oct. 1, 2015, adopt ICD-10 code sets as the standard for codes sets” and finishes by citing sections in the Social Security Act and the Code of Federal Regulations where the secretary's authority to mandate ICD-10 are located. The measure was greeted with relief by some who were worried the industry could not be ready for this October and frustration and ire by others upset that those who have invested in meeting this year's deadline may now need to wait another year for others to catch up. “It's recognition that the industry is simply not ready for the transition,” said Robert Tennant, senior policy adviser for the Medical Group Management Association, which has, along with the American Medical Association, and other professional and industry groups, lobbied HHS for an ICD-10 delay, and for better testing by the CMS of Medicare claims processing for ICD-10 compliance. “The extension by a minimum of one year—that's' the language, it's not one year—would be a sign to the CMS that they need to be more aggressive with testing and use the year, and not just CMS, to focus on getting end-to-end testing as part of the protocol.” The delay, Tennant said, also would “really give practices the opportunity to upgrade their software and do internal testing so they'll know exactly what the impact of ICD-10 will mean.” Tennant said the MGMA and other groups were strongly promoting legislation to do “an overall fix of the SGR,” but as the March 31 deadline loomed before payment cuts under current law would go into effect, “the handwriting was on the wall that a deal may not be possible, so there was some focus on a short-term fixes.” That gave legislators an opportunity to add other proposals, “and one of them was ICD-10,” he said. THE NATION'S PHYSICIANS HAVE HAD AN ADDITIONAL 12 MONTHS TO "GET READY" -- THIS IS REALLY ABOUT THEIR MEDICARE FEE SCHEDULES, WITH ICD10 TACKED ON FOR THE HECK OF IT -- TO NEGOTIATE WITH PROBABLY. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR BY EMAIL, FAX, PHONE - LOCAL OFFICE & WASHINGTO D.C. OFFICE TO "STOP THE DOC-FIX -- GO WITH ICD10!"