Medical Billing Blog

CMS: No ICD-10 Delay; AMA - It Costs too Much!

Posted by Scott Shatzman on Mon, Mar, 17, 2014 @ 10:03 AM

icd 10 cartoon resized 600The AMA has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to reconsider mandating the switch to ICD-10 on October 1, 2014.  In remarks delivered February 27th at the 2014 HIMSS Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner publicly rejected that call.  “There are no more delays and the system, will go live on Oct 1.” Tavenner said.

Tavenner’s straightforward statement was consistent with the off-the-record comments made by CMS staff to HBMA in the weeks leading up to the Administrator’s remarks.  According to CMS staff, the agency passed the “point of no return” in December.  “All systems are go for the October 1, 2014 launch of ICD-10.”

The American Medical Association (AMA) continues to support a delay in the go-live date for ICD-10.  In support of their position, the AMA released a report analyzing the cost of implementing ICD-10 for small, medium and large medical practices. This report contains updated results from a similar AMA study released in 2008.

In 2008 the predicted cost to implement ICD-10 ranged from $83,290 for a small practice; $285,195 for a medium practice; and, $2,728,780 for a large practice.

The 2014 report found the following cost ranges for each practice size, based on variables such as specialty, vendor and software:

 

Small practice              —        $     56,639 - $   226,105

Medium practice         —        $   213,364 - $   824,735

Large practice             —        $2,017,151 - $8,018,364

 

Along with software upgrades, the total costs include the expense of training, practice assessments, testing, payment disruptions and productivity loss for physicians. Software vendor readiness is a major concern as well.


The AMA argues that the financial and clinical returns are simply not there to justify the move to ICD-10 at this time. 

Thank you to Bill Finerfrock, Matt Reiter, and Zhaneta Mansaku for contributing this article