The Medical Group Management Association, which represents 21,500 members, says the government's proposed Oct 1, 2011 deadline for the healthcare industry to convert from ICD-9 code sets to ICD-10 is too short.
However, even as the MGMA decried the deadline as one that could wreak havoc on medical practices and other healthcare organizations, the American Health Information Management Association, which represents 51,000 health information management professionals, said it's about time.
"The proposed regulation simply does not give the industry the time necessary to implement ICD-10," William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of MGMA, said in a statement released Tuesday.
Because ICD-10 contains 10 times the number of codes as ICD-9, the newer code set will require vast changes for medical groups, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, he said.
ICD-9 contains 17,000 codes and is expected to start running out of available codes next year. The ICD-10 code sets contain more than 155,000 codes.
American Health Information Management Association CEO Linda Kloss said ICD-10 will better allow for the measurement of quality patient care and the international exchange of information on public health, pandemic and research that will help make policy and care decisions.
"The American Health Information Management Association is excited to hear the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to adopt ICD-10 classification upgrades," she said.
"We regard this as a significant step forward in the march toward the use of classification systems that reflect 21st century medical knowledge within a foreseeable timeframe. AHIMA is also hopeful that CMS can digest the responses to the proposed rule and promptly issue final rules in order for the healthcare industry to, at long last, get ICD-10 implementation rolling."
HHS has also proposed adopting the updated X12 standard, Version 5010, and the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs standard, Version D.0, for electronic transactions such as healthcare claims. Version 5010 is essential to use of the ICD-10 codes.
"We agree strongly with the recommendation from the government's own advisory body, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, that implementation of the 5010 transactions standards is a prerequisite to ICD-10. The two should not be implemented simultaneously," Jessee said.
CMS should wait at least three years after the conversion to 5010 before moving the healthcare industry to ICD-10, he said.
MGMA believes that CMS has not recognized the magnitude of this effort for each sector of the healthcare industry and the costs that medical groups will face to implement it, Jessee added.
Recent research by the MGMA Legislative and Executive Advocacy Response Network (LEARN) indicated that 95 percent of respondents in medical practices would have to purchase software upgrades for their practice management systems or buy all new software; 63.5 percent concluded that they would have to purchase code-selection software. In addition, 83.5 percent of LEARN respondents stated that they did not think public and private health plans would be ready to accept claims with ICD-10 codes by October 2011.
How would a switch to ICD-10 by Oct. 1, 2011, affect your organization? Send your comments to Editor Bernie Monegain@bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com