CODING NEWS

05/22/2012     

AMA Renews Call for ICD-10 Delay Until 2015

The American Medical Association has renewed its call to hit the pause button on the national adoption of the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedural codes. In a letter to CMS acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, AMA Executive Vice President Dr. James Madara referenced a November 2011 House of Delegates policy vote in which that body called for a “repeal” of the move to ICD “so that physicians and other stakeholders could assess an appropriate alternative to such a costly, burdensome regulatory requirement. The AMA has since pressed the case for a second look at ICD-10 overall.

Physicians need the delay because they are “overwhelmed with the simultaneous implementation of multiple health IT programs,” Madara said. He asked for a two-year extension to Oct. 1, 2015, with the caveat that “if stakeholders cannot reach consensus on this matter during this two-year period, then the move to ICD-10 should be postponed indefinitely.”

Source: Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare