ICD-10 Implementation Freeze Proposed by House Bill
By - The House is pushing to completely cease ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation via the introduction of a new bill. The primary objective of the bill, H.R. 2126, is to disallow the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from replacing ICD-9 with ICD-10 within HIPAA code set standards implementation, confirms the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
Representative Ted Poe (R-TX-2) has loudly criticized the federal mandate. Among many openly stated concerns, Poe has blatantly commented upon the ludicrous nature of extensive code volume. There is, indeed, a code for being assaulted for a second time by a turkey and a code for when one clumsily walks into a lamp post, according to Poe's 2013 statement to the House. Too many codes are problematic, as those physicians failing to properly handle codes are in violation of the law, Poe adds.
Poe’s introduction of a 2013 bill, H.R. 1701, the “Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2013,” neatly aligns with current legislative initiatives via the House. As the 2013 bill introduced by Poe, brought to the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Ways and Means, states, its initiative is to prohibit HHS from replacing ICD-9 with ICD-10 in implementing HIPAA code set standards. Poe’s bill also supported the formal ceasing of ICD-10 implementation beginning on October 1, 2014.
Poe’s 2013 bill additionally advocates for the HHS Secretary’s prohibition of the implementation, administration, or enforcement of specified regulations, “insofar as they would replace International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 with ICD-10 as a standard for code sets for appropriate data elements for financial and administrative transactions involving the electronic exchange of health information.”
Poe’s bill dissipated into a void of nothingness as it was not picked up by the referred House committees. The same initiatives have returned for additional debate, conversation, and proposed legislative action.
AHIMA and the Coalition for ICD-10 request ICD-10 supporters voice advocacy initiatives so ICD-10 will not be delayed further.
“Avoiding further delay in ICD-10 implementation is critical in order to limit implementation costs and be able to start leveraging the opportunities anticipated by the availability of better healthcare data,” says the Coalition for ICD-10, “including the ability to provide the detailed data necessary to accurately measure value for the new value-based physician payment system included in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.”
