The ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee has confirmed that ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes will be frozen - but there's both good and bad news about that for provider and payers.
CMS (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) proposed a freeze in March, on the grounds that it would mean healthcare organizations will not have to keep pace with code updates while also reworking their applications and systems for ICD-10-CM/PCS.
[Related Q&A: ICD-10 worst case scenario. See also: ICD-10 mobile apps coming to a phone near you.]
So here's the good news: ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets will be partially frozen such that the annual updates will happen on October 1, 2011, but during 2012 and 2013 those will be minimal, limited to code sets that capture new technologies and diseases. Regular updates will resume October 1, 2014, at which point only ICD-10 will be enhanced since ICD-9-CM will no longer be used.
AHIMA reported that the ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee will continue to meet and solicit comments during the code freeze but that “any new code requests that are not determined to be essential updates will be evaluated for implementation on or after October 1, 2014, once regular updates resume.”
That's where the bit of bad news comes in. ICD-10 is imperfect and the code freeze means that flaws – such as ICD-10 not accounting for uncontrolled diabetes or having only one code for coronary artery disease – will not be corrected before the compliance deadline of October 1, 2013, which prompted ACDIS (Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists) to oppose the code freeze.
The code freeze will doubtless help organizations that are running behind schedule, but somewhat predictably, it does not mean that they can put off the migration to ICD-10 any longer. Just last month, in fact, CMS issued a reminder that the deadlines for HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10 are coming – and, this time, they're firm.
Editor's Note: Vote in our new reader poll! Will you use mobile phone apps to look up ICD-10 codes? We'll report the results and what they mean.
Tom Sullivan blogs regularly at ICD10Watch.com.
