HHS Finalizes One-Year Delay For ICD-10
August 27, 2012
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Aug. 24 a rule finalizing a one-year proposed delay – from Oct. 1, 2013, to Oct. 1, 2014 – in the compliance date for use of ICD-10 codes, which classify diseases and health problems.
These code sets, known as the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes, will include some 87,000 codes for new procedures and diagnoses that officials say will improve the quality of information available for quality improvement and payment purposes.
“We believe the change in the compliance date for ICD-10 gives covered health care providers and other covered entities more time to prepare and fully test their systems to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition by all covered entities,” wrote HHS officials in a summary of the final rule.
“We are allowing more time for covered entities to prepare for the transition to ICD-10 and to conduct thorough testing,” they added. “By allowing more time to prepare, covered entities may be able to avoid costly obstacles that would otherwise emerge while in production.”
In the Regulatory Impact Analysis of this final rule, HHS officials estimated a cost avoidance of $3.6 billion to nearly $8 billion, just from avoiding the costs related to a large number of health care providers being unprepared for ICD-10.
In January of 2009, the HHS finalized a rule to adopt ICD-10, replacing the previously used ICD-9-CM. This rule established an original compliance date of October 1, 2013.
The rule announced Aug. 24 also establishes a unique health plan identifier. This is one of a series of changes required by the Affordable Care Act to cut red tape in the healthcare system and, according to government officials, could save up to $6 billion over 10 years.
Today’s rule is the fourth administrative simplification regulation issued by HHS under the health reform law.
These rules will go into effect on Nov. 5, 2012.
Article written by Erin McCann, Associate Editor for Healthcare IT News
