PROPOSED SPENDING BILL DOES NOT INCLUDE ICD-10
On Tuesday night, after over two uncertain weeks in which select physician groups, including the Texas branch of the American Medical Association (TMA), pushed lawmakers to include a two-year delay of ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation in a federal spending bill to be passed before the end of this year, the bill was introduced before Congress without language to delay ICD-10. The spending bill must be signed into law by Congress to avoid a government shutdown.
The bill, dubbed a "cromnibus" (part continuing resolution, part omnibus) and officially titled "HR 83 – Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015," next has to pass the House of Representatives and the Senate without amendment. The House is slated to consider this legislation later today. AHIMA is encouraging members to continue to advocate for ICD-10 implementation and contact Congress to ensure that amendments are not added to this funding bill.
The Coalition for ICD-10 has cautioned supporters of the October 1, 2015 implementation date to remain vigilant in case language delaying ICD-10 is slipped into the bill as an amendment. In keeping with that message, an #ICD10Matters Twitter Rally yesterday focused on getting the "no delay" message to legislators resulted in approximately 5,000 tweets in one hour.
On Wednesday afternoon, chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX), to whom the TMA specifically appealed to add legislation delaying ICD-10 to the current "lame duck" Congress, released this statement on ICD-10 through the Energy & Commerce Committee, chaired by Upton: "As we look ahead to the implementation date of ICD-10 on October 1, 2015, we will continue our close communication with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ensure that the deadline can successfully be met by stakeholders." In the 114th Congress, Upton and Sessions will be asking key stakeholders for information about ICD-10 readiness, including both supporters and opponents of the code sets.
WHAT DO OPPONENTS HAVE AGAINST ICD-10?
Among some physicians who oppose ICD-10, "misinformation and scare tactics" such as "ICD-10 is too expensive, too difficult to learn, and too complex to implement" may have been "repeated so often people began to believe them," AHIMA official Sue Bowman, MJ, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA, senior director of coding policy and compliance, and public policy & government relations, said this week. A Q&A with Bowman on the website HITECH Answers, outlines the negative impacts that would be associated with any further delay of ICD-10.
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