Keeping the pulse on ICD-10

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held two days of hearings in an effort to find a permanent solution to the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. At the hearings scheduled (Jan. 21 and 22), lawmakers discussed “how to bring SGR reform to the president’s desk before the current patch expires at the end of March 2015,” according to an announcement by the subcommittee. Is it possible that this year’s congressional SGR fix could include a further ICD-10 delay?

Last year, the House and Senate passed legislation—the Protecting Access to Medicare Act—that included a provision to delay the ICD-10 deadline by one year to Oct. 1, 2015. President Obama signed the so-called “doc fix bill” into law delaying ICD-10 implementation to this October as well as delaying Medicare payment cuts to physicians until April 1, 2015.

With the start of the new 114th Congress and as the SGR deadline looms, ICD-10 could again be on the legislative agenda. But nothing has emerged yet from the proceedings of the hearings and that could be a sign that NO delays are in talks for now.

Regardless of any changes, preparations need to continue. Why? because good documentation is ICD neutral.

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