AMA Asks CMS For 2-year Extension of ICD-10 Deadline
May 24, 2012
The American Medical Association (AMA) has asked the federal government to delay the implementation deadline for ICD-10 from Oct. 1, 2013, until Oct. 1, 2015, “at a minimum.”
The AMA asked for this two-year compliance deadline in a May 10 comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). “A two-year delay of the compliance deadline for ICD-10 is a necessary first step,” AMA officials wrote to CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn B. Tavenner.
During the delay AMA proposes, officials urge CMS to institute a process to engage all relevant, stakeholders including physicians, to assess whether an alternative code set approach is more appropriate than the full implementation of ICD-10.
Earlier this year, CMS nodded to rolling back the deadline from Oct. 1, 2012, to Oct. 1, 2013, delaying compliance by one year.
In November 2011, AMA’s House of Delegates voted to call for a repeal of the federal requirement to move to ICD-10 so that physicians and other stakeholders could assess an appropriate alternative.
Physicians will be overwhelmed with the financial and administrative burdens of a transition to ICD-10 while they are also facing implementation of “a number of inadequately aligned” federal programs, AMA officials wrote. The burdens are further compounded by a proposed 31 percent Medicare reimbursement cut proposed for Jan. 1, 2013.
Article written by Diana Manos, Senior Editor with Healthcare IT News
