AMA: Halt Implementation of ICD-10

On January 17, 2012, AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD, wrote to House Speaker John A. Boehner, urging the halt of the required implementation of ICD-10 under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Madara outlines the reasons why ICD-10 would place unnecessary burden on physicians with no added patient benefit. Dr. Madara showed that a five-fold increase in current codes and the need for education, software, coder training, and testing with payers would significantly increase the cost to physicians as a result of code compliance. “As HIPAA covered entities, physicians are responsible for complying with this ICD-10 mandate, and therefore must bear the entire cost of such a transition, without any financial aid from the government,” Madara noted. “Depending on the size of a medical practice, the total cost of implementing ICD-10 ranges from $83,290 to more than $2.7 million.” In addition to rising costs, physicians are currently spending time and resources transitioning to electronic health records (EHRs) in their practices, but the implementation of ICD-10 will disrupt current health IT efforts. As a result, Dr. Madara urged Speaker Boehner to “re-evaluate the penalty program timelines associated with the e-prescribing, meaningful use, and PQRS programs.” Resynchronizing federal health IT programs will help physicians persevere in their transition to various health IT and reporting requirements, as well as help their ability to participate in practice redesign and reforms visualized under the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Madara argues that stopping ICD-10 will help physicians: • Continue the adoption of EHRs; • Participate in quality and health IT programs; • Reduce costly burdens.