ICD-10 Delayed Once Again

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced it will delay for another year the required implementation of ICD-10, the billing code sets known as the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes. The new deadline for compliance is October 1, 2014. The previous deadline, October 1, 2013, in the final rule adopting ICD-10 as a standard was itself an two-year extension from the deadline in the proposed rule. In the HHS press release announcing the delay, the department took a moment to remind readers why the switch is necessary. In its estimation, the standardization of diagnosis coeds along with other billing and administration simplifications will save up to $6 billion over 10 years. “These new standards are a part of our efforts to help providers and health plans spend less time filling out paperwork and more time seeing their patients,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated in the release.View the final rule fact sheet.
Read the final rule.