Break to ICD-10's Regulatory Issues

While navigating through our ICD-10-CM journey, it’s now time to take a break from the guidelines to discuss the regulatory issues related to ICD-10. As you probably have heard, the proposed rule was published on Aug. 22. How many years have we been told ICD-10 is coming and it never happened? ICD-10 will happen sooner than we think. The comment period is over and the final rule is expected to be published by the year’s end or at the latest by the time President Bush leaves office.
Unfortunately, the proposed rule is riddled with problems. In the proposed rule, the implementation date is expected on Oct. 1, 2011 and the small health plans conversion on Oct. 1, 2012. What does that mean to us? We will use ICD-10-CM for the larger health plans and ICD-9-CM for the smaller health plans for a period of one year. This is problematic as some health plans will have issues just trying to figure out which system to use. We need more time to prepare. Oct. 1, 2011 may not afford enough time for larger group practices, universities, or our payer community. Let’s review the overall problems with the proposed rule.
Full article:
Break to ICD-10’s Regulatory Issues – Coding Edge November 2008