The Englewood, Calif.-based Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) says the October 1, 2011 compliance date for full implementation of the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code set from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS, Baltimore, Md.) is not workable.
According to the organization, the government must overcome numerous challenges before the healthcare industry can fully implement ICD-10. Recent research by the MGMA Legislative and Executive Advocacy Response Network (LEARN) indicated that 95 percent of respondents in medical practices would have to purchase software upgrades for their practice management systems or buy all new software; 63.5 percent concluded that they would have to purchase code-selection software. In addition, 83.5 percent of LEARN respondents stated that they did not think public and private health plans would be ready to accept claims with ICD-10 codes by October 2011.
MGMA believes that CMS has not recognized the magnitude of this effort for each sector of the healthcare industry and the costs that medical groups will face to implement it. MGMA believes that the health care industry should adopt ICD-10 only after the 5010 transaction standards are fully implemented and tested, it states.
