This morning a bicameral/bipartisan bill is being introduced that would fix the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) preventing a 24 percent cut in reimbursements to physicians under Medicare, The Hill reports. The bill also includes language located in Sec. 212 stating that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) delay the ICD-10 implementation to October 1, 2015. This bill is expected to go to the House floor tomorrow, March 27th.
In response to the bill, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) put out a call to members and other stakeholders to contact their representatives in Congress and ask them to take the ICD-10 provision out of the SGR bill.
CMS estimates that a one year delay could cost between $1 billion to $6.6 billion, according a statement from AHIMA officials. ”This is approximately 10-30 percent of what has already been invested by providers, payers, vendors and academic programs in your district,” AHIMA wrote in a statement. ”Without ICD-10, the return on investment in EHRs and health data exchange will be greatly diminished… Let Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Reid know that a delay in ICD-10 will substantially increase total implementation costs in your district.”
