U.S. Senate: ICD-10 Will Be Implemented This Year
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Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Orin Hatch (R-Utah), and Ranking Member, Ron Wyden (D-Ore), are confident that ICD-10 will be implemented this year after reading the report released on Feb. 6th by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is ready to upgrade to the next level of coding.
According to Hatch, "the transition to the new system will streamline the management of healthcare records and improve patient care." He does not foresee any issues for why there would be a delay past the October deadline. The CMS reported to the GAO that it has finished all ICD-10 related changes to its Medicare payment systems, and that Medicaid agencies also have reported that they are ready for the change. The CMS has developed a series of tools, such as in-person training sessions, teleconferences, educational materials, and monitoring the readiness of providers and payers for the transition to ICD-10.
The following are some of the concerns that 28 stakeholders expressed about the transition to ICD-10:
- CMS testing activities are not comprehensive
- Education materials are useful but are providers and payers aware of them
- CMS should expand its in-person training and develop specialty-specific materials
- CMS should use less electronic methods to make its Medicare fee-for-service contingency plans public
Summary by MedicalGroups.com
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