Medical Groups Pleading For Additional Two-Year Delay To ICD-10

In a case of potential déjà vu, a number of medical groups are urging Speaker of the House Representative John Boehner (R-OH) to include a provision in an upcoming bill that would delay the ICD-10 compliance date another two years.  

The advocacy efforts, which come from the National Physicians’ Council for Healthcare Policy, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Texas Medical Association, and other state medical groups, seek to delay the ICD-10 implementation deadline until October 2017. The medical groups sent a letter to Speaker Boehner, asking him to tie a delay to a bill that will likely pass in the upcoming “lame duck” Congress session.  According to the Journal of AHIMA (American Healthcare Information Management Association), the bill is a $157 billion Departments of Labor-Health and Human Services-Education spending bill that will expire in the middle of this month. The medical groups say they have spoke with Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fred Upton (R-MI) and Chairman of the Rules Committee, Pete Sessions (R-TX) on including this provision in the bill.

“The onerous penalties tied to these mandates add to the hysteria that is running through physicians’ offices and is generating many early retirements,” authors of the letter to Boehner write, who are worried about the financial impact that ICD-10 will have on physcians...