January 16, 2009
Courtesy of  Texas Medical Association

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) got the message: Don't rush to implement the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code sets. HHS has just adopted a final rule that delays the compliance deadline from Oct. 1, 2011, to Oct. 1, 2013. The final rule also pushed back implementation of the 5010 electronic claim form from April 1, 2010, to Jan. 1, 2012.

As the January Texas Medicine reported, physicians, health insurance companies, claims clearinghouses, and other stakeholders supported the transition from the current ICD-9 code set, which includes 17,000 codes, to ICD-10, which has some 155,000 codes. But they all warned that pushing to implement the new codes by a proposed October 2011 deadline could lead to chaos.

Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, says the agency received more than 3,000 comments on the new codes. Many of them asked for more time for implementation, citing costs, the need to train health care personnel, and to assure ample time for testing between trading partners.

The Texas Medical Association joined the American Medical Association in opposing the 2011 implementation date. TMA, AMA, and other state medical associations sent HHS a letter proposing at least 36 months to adopt and implement the 5010 rule and a delay in adoption of ICD-10 of at least 60 months following publication of the 5010 rule, and until at least 95 percent of the industry is successfully using the 5010 standard.