Any attempts to delay, again, ICD-10 compliance would be a waste of time and money, and should be opposed, eight healthcare organizations--including the American Hospital Association and the Premier healthcare alliance--stressed to members of Congress in a recent letter.
ICD-9 is "outdated" the organizations said, and ICD-10 would enable providers to keep up with medical advances.
"The [most recent] delay added billions of dollars in extra costs," the organizations said. "Many of our members had to quickly reconfigure systems and processes that were prepared to use ICD-10 back to ICD-9. Newly trained coders who graduated from ICD-10 focused programs were unprepared for use of the older code set and needed to be retrained back to using ICD-9. ... This results in a doubling of costs that are not productive."
An ICD-10 delay was not included in the proposed "Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015" to fund the government, which is also being referred to as the "cromnibus" bill. The proposal is expected to be voted on by Congress on Thursday. Letter (.pdf)