April 9, 2012

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced a proposed rule that would delay until October 1, 2014, the compliance date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10).

On January 16, 2009, HHS published a final rule to adopt ICD-10 as the HIPAA standard code sets for diagnosis and procedure codes. The compliance date set by the original final rule was October 1, 2013.

Over the past few months, some providers have expressed concerns about their ability to meet the October 1, 2013 ICD-10 compliance date. The concerns about the ICD-10 compliance date appear to be based, in part, on implementation problems that have arisen with respect to the compliance deadline for X12 Version 5010 standards for electronic health care transactions. Compliance with Version 5010 is essential to adoption and use of ICD-10.

Advocates for moving to ICD-10 believe that adoption and use of ICD-10 will "lead to improved accuracy in reimbursement for medical services, fraud detection, and historical claims and diagnoses analysis for the health care system". In addition, many health researchers believe the greater level of clinical detail available via ICD-10 could have a positive impact on healthcare quality.

HHS believes the change in the compliance date for ICD-10, as proposed in this rule, will give providers more time to prepare and fully test their systems to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition among all industry segments.

Individuals and organizations wishing to comment on this proposed change must submit their comments within 30 days of the NPRM appearing in the Federal Register. The HBMA ICD-10 Committee will be developing comments on behalf of the membership.

abinsights readers are invited to submit comments, questions, tips, and suggestions for articles on any subject related to billing, collections, coding, reimbursement, and compliance. Send to: Anesthesia Billing, Inc., P O Box 388, Newton, KS 67114-0388.

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Editor: Philip Blann (pblann@anesthesiabilling.com).