MGMA urges practice ICD-10 testing ASAP

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is urging the Department of Health & Human Services to undertake full end-to-end testing with physician practices as soon as possible.

In a letter to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, MGMA commends the decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reverse its previous policy and initiate ICD-10 testing, but argues that the type of “front end” testing to be conducted is simply insufficient. Failure to appropriately test ICD-10 could result in operational problems similar to those experienced with the rollout of healthcare.gov and will dramatically increase the potential of catastrophic cash flow disruption for practices following the Oct. 1, 2014, transition date, MGMA says.

The association also made several recommendations, including public dissemination of Medicare testing results as soon as possible and the ICD-10 readiness levels of all Medicare administrative contractors and state Medicaid agencies on a monthly basis; expansion of CMS provider education with a focus on providing specialty-specific coding and clinical documentation improvement instruction; and greater CMS outreach to practice management system and EHR software vendors.

Read the MGMA letter here.