ICD-10 Dealyed until October 2015
ICD-10 Compliance Date On April 1, 2014, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) (Pub. L. No. 113-93) was enacted, which said that the Secretary may not adopt ICD-10 prior to October 1, 2015. Accordingly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expects to release an interim final rule in the near future that will include a new compliance date that would require the use of ICD-10 beginning October 1, 2015. The rule will also require HIPAA covered entities to continue to use ICD-9-CM through September 30, 2015.
Senate passed SGR patch and ICD-10 One Year Delay
The Senate passed legislation (H.R. 4302), which delays for one year a 24% cut to Medicare physician payments resulting from the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The legislation also pushed the ICD-10 compliance deadline to October 1, 2015. The SGR legislation provisions were:
- Extends the 1.0 work Geographic Practice Cost Index (GPCI) floor and therapy cap exceptions process for one year
- Delays the transition to ICD-10 for at least one year
- Creates new Medicare policies for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests
- Puts in place “appropriate use” criteria for certain imaging services
- Creates a new process for identifying “misvalued codes” in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
For more information, access the legislation available here.
