ICD-10 Delay

As the delay allows the additional time for preparation, it poses an important resource and financial impact on inventing entities in transition, according to the APMA.

ICD-10 Delay

Officially it has been declared that usage of ICD-10 code has been delayed till 2015. President Barack Obama has signed the patch legislation of Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate which means that physicians would be able to receive payments according to the old formula of Medicare patients, also includes the delay of ICD-10 implementation till October 1^st, 2015. But definitely; the delay would affect the industry generally.

Most of the health care industry has spent a lot to meet with the deadline of October 1, 2014. The current act which is now spreading, will prohibit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to carry out the switch from ICD-09 to ICD-10 before October 1, 2015. This system is already used by most of the countries all over the world and also the one which makes improvement in diagnosis, specificity and care quality.

As the delay is official, it is said by the CMS that the delay will cost between $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion which provided the estimates in 2012 when the switch of ICD-10 delayed till the year of 2014. Organizations are expecting that the delay causes an additional spend of about 10% to 30%. Also the delay in ICD-10 provides an additional time for preparation.

Options to Delay

Direct Methods

·        Incentives

·        Providing infrastructure

·        Direct funding

Indirect Methods

Implementation schedule

The accurate and detailed reporting that reflects the difficult population CHCs serve will be allowed by the ICD-10. Both the Physician Quality Reporting System and Pay for Performance use diagnosis data for the measurement of incentive payments plus the advantage plans of Medicare.

Modification

The main concern is the increasing number of codes that are available in the new system. Coders and physicians will not only require to learn the new format of ICD-10 but also learn to rearrange the code book and spending most of the time in researching options. Surely, that is an issue and productivity is to be examined to avoid coding delays.

Cost

Cost estimates depend on the IT system requirements, whether the EHR implemented or not. Although, the total cost will not be known till the procedure is completed, it surely will be a burden on the physicians.

CIOs at insurance companies, hospitals, healthcare companies and the vendors of health IT are not completely prepare to lose their built momentum to meet with the fall deadline, but also they are searching for more clarity before they start.