ICD-10 Deadline Is On October 1, 2014

HHS Announces One-Year Delay for ICD-10

It’s now official—well, almost. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced this April that it’s proposing a one-year delay in the compliance date for the new ICD-10 diagnosis coding system. The new deadline is October 1, 2014.

The delay gives more time for many in the medical community—mostly medical facilities and practices, but also providers of medical coding training—to prepare for ICD-10. 

In a statement, HHS emphasized that "some provider groups have expressed serious concerns about their ability to meet the October 1, 2013 compliance date."  Specifically, these groups took issue with a new standardized health claims form, the co-called Version 5010, for electronic health transactions, which needs to be implemented first before ICD-10 can be used.

"HHS believes the change in the compliance date for ICD-10, as proposed in this rule, would give providers and other covered entities more time to prepare and fully test their systems to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition among all industry segments," the statement said.

The health information technology firms, which had been pushing hard to meet the original deadline, were disappointed with the announcement. "I haven't talked to anyone who isn't extremely disappointed," lamented Susan Heichert, RN, chief information officer at Allina Hospital and Clinics in St. Paul, Minn.
HHS emphasized that it in fact considered several alternatives to ICD-10, including skipping ahead to ICD-11. It has bared in a statement some of its major reasons for the postponement.

“Provider groups have expressed strong concern about their ability to meet the October 1, 2013 compliance date and the serious claims payment issues that might then ensue," HHS explained. “Some providers' concerns about being able to meet the ICD-10 compliance date are based, in part, on difficulties they have had meeting HHS' compliance deadline for 5010 standards [Version 5010] for electronic health care transactions. We believe the change in the compliance date for ICD-10, as proposed in this rule, would give providers and other covered entities more time to prepare and fully test their systems to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition by all industry segments.”

HHS cited a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) survey which found that a fourth of providers said they would not be ready for ICD-10 by October 1, 2013, and a Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) survey result which indicated that almost 50 percent of the 2,140 providers who responded to the survey said they were uncertain when they would complete their impact assessment. HHS estimated that ICD-10 will cost commercial and government health organizations between $650 million and $1.3 billion, adding that “a 1-year delay of the ICD-10 compliance date would add 10 to 30 percent to the total cost that these entities have already spent or budgeted for the transition."