Fallout is Hitting the Fans Due to the US' ICD10 Delay

B'SD

Nisan 4, 5774

The fallout is hitting fans across the world as medical industry professionals in industrialized countries - using ICD10 medical coding since 1996 - wonder how the US will cope with lagging behind the entire class. 

A jump straight from ICD-9 to ICD-11 -- as some opponents of ICD-10 have suggested in the past -- may not be likely.

ICD-11 won't be released until 2017 and likely won't be available in the U.S. until at least 2020, Jeff Smith, director of public policy at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives in Ann Arbor, Mich., said.

"Waiting until 2021 or 2022 is simply not an option given the kind of payment reforms that are needed, and given the wholly inadequate nature of ICD-9 codes," Smith told MedPage Today in an email.

What does this mean to Americans 

and their medical care?

1) Hampered communications between worldwide medical researchers and medical professionals who've used the ICD10 medical coding system since 1996!!!

2) As for the inevitable crippled ability of US insurance companies: 

• Americans will receive smaller medical insurance reimbursements than ICD10 could have facilitated.

• We medical coders and your medical professionals lack the means to prove that your care costs more than it used to, or was invented after the creation of the Internet.

I kid you not. The federal government of the USA tripped up US health care by passing that HR 4302 bill. 

By the way, NOT ONE legislator read the line about delaying ICD10 aloud - during 5 hours of televised coverage of the HR 4302 bill passage event!

Did they sign a contract without reading the entire document? Fail to understand its implications?

Well, no matter what, or how to pin the blame...

You're stuck in 1979's standards of ICD9 medical coding. It will cost America a LOT of money.

The entire medical and medical coding worlds are reeling from that development.

Need financial help out of your misery? 

Learn about organizations willing to help pay all or part of your medical bills in the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Feel free to notify your legislators of the problem.