The American Medical Association and 99 other physician organizations sent a letter on March 4 to acting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Andrew Slavitt expressing their concerns with the transition to ICD-10.
By Oct. 1, all groups covered under the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act are required to be in compliance with ICD-10.
In the letter, the groups said industry-wide testing for ICD-10 in administrative transactions is lacking and noted the first week of testing wasn’t completed until January 2015. They mentioned the 81 percent acceptance rate was below average and asked CMS to release more detailed results, including the type and size of the providers testing the claims, the number of claims processed and tested by each group and information on problems encountered during the testing.
The organizations are also concerned with the collection and calculation of quality data during and after the ICD-10 implementation. They also said they were worried about likely claims processing and cash flow interruptions, problems with software and issues with the specificity of codes required for inclusion on Medicare claims.
“By itself, the implementation of ICD-10 is a massive undertaking,” the organizations wrote. “The undersigned organizations remain gravely concerned that many aspects of this undertaking have not been fully assessed and that contingency plans may be inadequate if serious disruptions occur on or after October 1. Furthermore, physicians are being asked to assume this significant change at the same time they are being required to adopt new technology, re-engineer workflow, and reform the way they deliver care—all of which are challenging their ability to care for patients and make investments to improve quality. We appreciate the opportunity to offer this perspective and these recommendations and look forward to further dialogue on this issue.”
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.