With Senate vote approaching, health groups react to SGR bill, ICD-10 delay
An eleventh hour passage by the House of Representatives of a one-year ‘doc fix’ bill, which includes a contentious provision to delay ICD-10 for at least a year, has sparked outcry from health groups. A permanent sustainable growth rate (SGR) bill passed the House earlier this month but did not move forward in the Senate due to provisions delaying the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate penalty.
The bill, “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014,” which is projected to cost at least $20 billion, would delay for 12 months a scheduled 24 percent cut to Medicare reimbursements. The Senate is expected to take up the bill on Monday, the final day before the reimbursement decrease would go into effect.
Several groups are urging their members to lobby Congress against the legislation, while others are throwing their support behind the temporary patch. Here are what some groups are saying:
American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) spoke out sharply against a possible ICD-10 delay. “The transition to ICD-10 is time sensitive because of the urgent need to keep up with tracking, identifying and analyzing new clinical services and treatments available to patients. Continued reliance on ICD-9 is not a viable option when considering the risk to public health and the danger of relying on outdated and imprecise data.”
The group went on to say that hospitals, healthcare systems, third-party payers and physician officers already have made “enormous” investments in ICD-10 preparedness, and the bill would impact 25,000 students in health IT programs who only have learned to code ICD-10.
American Medical Association (AMA) President Ardis Dee Hoven, MD, said the association is “extremely disappointed” in the House’s action to give up on a permanent repeal of the SGR. “There was bipartisan, bicameral support for reform this year, yet too many in Congress lacked the courage and wherewithal to permanently fix Medicare to improve care for patients and provide greater certainty for physician practices. Congressional leadership had to resort to trickery to pass an SGR patch that was opposed by physicians.”
American College of Physicians President Molly Cooke, MD, protested the voice vote. “By voting for the patch, the House failed to heed the unified call of physicians who believe that now is the time for the House and Senate to reach agreement on the bipartisan reforms that were agreed to by the leaders of the Medicare committees of jurisdiction.”
American College of Radiology said it strongly supports several provisions in bill. The college “particularly applauds inclusion of several ACR-backed provisions that raise medical imaging quality, enable more efficient care and increase transparency in physician payment policy.”
College of Healthcare Information Management Executive President and CEO Russell Branzell said in a statement: "Further delay of ICD-10 discredits the considerable investment made by stakeholders across the country to modernize healthcare delivery. Providers have already dedicated significant time and resources in financing, training and implementing the necessary changes to workflow and clinical documentation."