During a stakeholder meeting last week, CMS indicated that it might reconsider performing external, end-to-end ICD-10 testing, according to a Medical Group Management Association official who attended the meeting, MedPage Today‘s “The Gupta Guide” reports.
This summer, MGMA and other organizations publicly called for such testing (Pittman, “The Gupta Guide,” MedPage Today, 11/8).
Background
U.S. health care organizations are working to transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets to accommodate codes for new diseases and procedures. The switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets means that health care providers and insurers will have to change out about 14,000 codes for about 69,000 codes.
In August 2012, HHS released a final rule that officially delayed the ICD-10 compliance date from Oct. 1, 2013, to Oct. 1, 2014, partially to look at the incremental changes needed in reforming health care.
There were rumors that CMS had decided not to conduct “external, end-to-end” testing with outside organizations for ICD-10 claims flows.
During an HHS National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics Subcommittee on Standards hearing in June, Cathy Carter — director of the business applications management group in CMS’ office of information services — said, “I don’t believe there was ever a plan [for Medicaid administrative contractors] to test with providers all the way through.” Carter said, “The announcement everyone is talking about wasn’t really an announcement.”
She said that CMS officials have informally agreed to discuss the issue in response to negative comments but expressed little optimism that CMS would change its plans, citing a lack of funding and time (iHealthBeat, 7/24).
Details of CMS’ Reconsideration
Robert Tennant, a senior policy adviser at MGMA, said CMS was “at least willing to revisit the issue of testing” after the problematic launch of the federal health insurance exchange website HealthCare.gov (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 11/8).
