At the beginning of April, 2014, President Obama signed the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014.”  The act included, to the shock of much of the industry, a delay of the implementation date for one year. The language of the act, unfortunately, was not as clear as the intention. The language which stated, “The Secretary of Health and Human Services may not, prior to Oct. 1, 2015, adopt ICD-10 code sets as the standard for codes sets.”  This language left open for speculation that the actual implementation date could be later.

CMS closed the door on all this speculation with an announcement yesterday that October 1, 2015 was indeed the implementation date. The press release stressed the benefits of ICD-10, and gave some rationale specific to the October 1 date.

Based on my recent discussions with CFOs, HIM directors, and IT leaders, this announcement is well timed. Many hospitals are suffering from lagging interest in ICD-10 implementation work because of the delay and the usual summer vacation interruptions.

Phoenix recommends that hospitals whose ICD-10 efforts have stalled, use this announcement as a relaunch point for their ICD-10 effort. There are still many ICD-10 related activities that can be completed now, and some of those, e.g. documentation improvement efforts, can have positive financial effects as soon as they are implemented, without regard to the ICD-10 date.

If you’re looking for guidance on rejuvenating your ICD-10 efforts, download our webinar, How to Re-strategize for a Successful ICD-10 Implementation.