How ICD-11 Figured into HHS’ ICD-10 Deadline Decision

Word of the new ICD-10 compliance deadline came as welcome news to many in the healthcare realm – just not everyone.

There remains a corner of the industry that publicly asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider other alternatives, most notably ICD-11, before mandating a new deadline.

HHS explains in the final rule that it considered four options:

1.  sticking with October 1, 2013 as the deadline,
2.  maintaining the October 1, 2013 for ICD-10-PCS but delaying the compliance date for ICD-10-CM,
3.  foregoing ICD-10 and waiting for ICD-11 and
4.  mandating a uniform delay for one year.

“We proposed Option 4 because we believed it would be the most effective way to mitigate the significant systemic disruptions and payment delays that could result if a large percentage of providers are not ready to implement ICD-10 on October 1, 2013,” HHS wrote in the final rule. “In addition, as the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) indicates, Option 4 is most likely to minimize the costs of delay and to maximize the benefits to providers who need more time to implement.”

Source: www.govhealthit.com; Tom Sullivan; August 28, 2012.