Most healthcare organizations are at or below budget for the transition to ICD-10, according to the early results of an ICD-10 readiness survey conducted by consulting firm The Advisory Board Company.

The eHealth Initiative launched a new public-private collaboration, “2020 Roadmap,” to help guide the transformation of the U.S. healthcare system by 2020.

Without bi-partisan agreement on how to pay for a full repeal of the near universally reviled sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that would cut Medicare physician reimbursement by about one fourth starting on April 1, House Republicans posted a one-year SGR fix to the Rules Committee website three minutes before midnight last night. The new bill also delays ICD-10 implementation until Oct. 1, 2015.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is reminding eligible professionals that the deadline to register and attest to Meaningful Use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program is Monday, March 31 by 11:59pm, EST.

Health IT’s role in market failures, and continued barriers caused by lack of interoperability, the “big is better phenomenon” and data lock all were discussed during a lively panel session at the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop, “Examining Health Care Competition,” on March 20.

The backlog of appeals pending with the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals has grown so large that it is beginning to affect Medicare beneficiaries directly, and that has gotten the attention of Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), a ranking member of the powerful Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health.

The largest private payers in the U.S. reported that they will be ready for ICD-10 implementation by the Oct. 1 compliance deadline, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

With the Oct. 1 ICD-10 compliance deadline fast approaching, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its “Road to 10” online resource to help providers in small practices jumpstart their ICD-10 transition.