New coalition hopes for no further ICD-10 delays
A group of 15 professional organizations sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them not to issue any further delays to the current ICD-10 implementation date of Oct. 1, 2015.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, the American Health Information Management Association, the Healthcare Financial Management Association, America's Health Insurance Plans and more sent the letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell.
Naming themselves the Coalition for ICD-10, the organizations said past implementation delays have been "disruptive and costly" to coalition members as well as "healthcare delivery innovation, payment reform, public health and healthcare spending."
"Nearly three-quarters of the hospitals and health systems surveyed just before the current delay were confident in their ability to successfully implement ICD-10," the letter reads. "Retraining personnel and reconfiguring systems multiple times in anticipation of the implementation of ICD-10 is unnecessarily driving up the cost of healthcare."
The coalition also noted that ICD-10 would help with population health management, tracking and surveillance of pandemic threats like Ebola which does not have its own ICD-9 code.
Read the letter.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.