ANN ARBOR, MI, March 31, 2014 – This evening, the Senate joined the House in approving legislation that delays ICD-10 implementation until 2015, as part of a broader bill that prevents Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians under the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR).
We are extremely disappointed by today's vote. We understand the considerable hours, resources, and money CHIME members and their organizations have spent preparing for the transition. This pause in momentum discredits the significant work our industry has spent training staff, conducting testing, and converting systems; not to mention the hold on improving care quality and accuracy, advancing clinical reporting and research, and patient safety outcomes.
Assuming Presidential signature on the legislation, CMS must now provide new guidance to the industry on what the delay means for providers, vendors, clearinghouses and other concerned parties. The delay leaves numerous unanswered questions from testing, training and revamping the agency's education resources, such as the CMS eHealth University, designed to help providers understand, implement, and successfully participate in the conversion process.
The ICD-10 delay comes at a critical time just as providers are implementing new care models that would benefit from greater coding accuracy and specificity, such as patient-centered medical homes and value-based purchasing.
We will look for information from CMS as it becomes available, and will continue to work diligently with stakeholders to prevent any further delay beyond 2015.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 100 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.cio-chime.org
Contact:
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications, CHIME
734-665-0000
[email protected]