Industry News

HHS Plans to Further Delay ICD-10 Compliance until October 2014

Richard P. Kusserow | April 2012

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed to delay the compliance date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10) by one year, until October 2014.Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, all covered entities must implement ICD-10 in their billing and coding systems.

According to HHS, providers have expressed concerns about implementing the Associate Standard Committee’s X12 Version 5010 standards, a necessary precursor to ICD-10 adoption.  To ensure a smooth transition from the current ICD-9 code set, covered entities must convert to ICD-10 at the same time.  If providers do not transition to the new code set at the same time, they will likely experience claim rejections and payment delays.  Thus, HHS proposing to delay the date for ICD-10 compliance to allow providers more time to employ the necessary systems to implement the new code set.

HHS will accept comments to the proposed rule until May 17.

The proposed rule to delay the ICD-10 compliance date is available at:

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-04-17/pdf/2012-8718.pdf.


Administrative Simplification: Adoption of a Standard for a Unique Health Plan Identifier; Addition to the National Provider Identifier Requirements; and a Change to the Compliance Date for ICD–10–CM and ICD–10–PCS Medical Data Code Sets, 77 Fed. Reg. 74, 22950, 22950.  (Apr. 17, 2012).

About the Author

Richard P. Kusserow established Strategic Management Services, LLC, after retiring from being the DHHS Inspector General, and has assisted over 2,000 health care organizations and entities in developing, implementing and assessing compliance programs.