With only 131 days left until the October 1, 2015 ICD-10 implementation deadline, you may feel overwhelmed. Many, Florida Chiropractic Conferences included, have been telling you to prepare yourself and your office and still many others are speculating that the transition won’t happen at all.
On April 30, 2015, Congressman Ted Poe, R-TX introduced a bill to further delay the ICD-10 implementation date. H.R. 2126, the ‘Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2015‘ is summarized below:
This bill prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from implementing, administering, or enforcing regulations that would replace ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases) with ICD-10 as a code set for financial and administrative transactions involving the electronic exchange of health information. ICD is a system of diagnostic codes for classifying diseases.
The Government Accountability Office must recommend steps to mitigate the disruption to health care providers that would result from replacement of ICD-9.
Last year, a similar scenario occurred when H.R. 4032, the “doc fix bill”, was signed into law. That bill included a last minute provision that delayed ICD-10 implementation for a year, giving us the October 1, 2015 implementation date we have now. Proponents of staying with the current ICD-9 codes may see the introduction of H.R. 2126 as a sign that the October 1, 2015 implementation date will be delayed.
However, GovTrack.us, one of the world’s most visited government transparency websites, has given the bill a 1% chance of making it through committee and a 0% chance of being enacted. Bottom line? Whether for or against it, change is coming. Do not put off preparation and pay the price! If you were not able to make one of these four classes, we encourage you to seek out training. Your practice (and your wallet) will thank you for it!