MGMA: Concerned CMS not planning for ICD-10 testing

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is concerned that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not conduct ICD-10 testing with external trading partners.

MGMA President and CEO Susan Turney sent a letter to the Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying she is "extremely concerned" becuase such testing could avoid a potential "catastrophic back-log of Medicare claims" after the Oct. 1, 2014, compliance date passes. "Failure to do so could result in significant cash flow disruption for physicians and their practices, and serious access to care issues for Medicare patients," she said.

Last month, Cathy Carter, director of the business application management group for CMS' Office of Information Services revealed that there was never any plan to test health providers "all the way through" ICD-10, addressing questions raised by a CMS announcement released in May. Still, CMS plans to conduct internal testing of its own systems to assess ICD-10 readiness.

Medicare has committed to testing with external trading partners in other cases, such as CMS' National HIPAA 5010 Testing Week, in which providers were encouraged to test directly with Medicare, which Turney deemed "highly successful."

"This deviation from the traditional Medicare testing policy and inconsistent messaging have sharply increased the apprehension that physician practices already feel regarding the implementation of ICD-10," she added.

MGMA's own research recently found that only 4.8 percent of more than 1,200 responding medical groups had made "significant" progress in their ICD-10 implementation efforts. Turney said the data suggest that many practices are "in the dark" with regard to the transition.