WEDI Proposes Aggressive ICD-10 Transition Road Map to HHS

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a nonprofit organization, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposing an updated, more aggressive ICD-10 transition road map, after the deadline for the coding transition was moved back by at least one year.

WEDI’s letter outlines steps it says HHS should take to minimize disruption to the healthcare industry that it says will come because of the delay. It says HHS should ensure Medicare and Medicaid readiness transparency, expedite and expanding industry testing, expand provider education, target outreach to non-covered entities, conduct or support limited pilots, and establish clear milestones and track readiness.

“WEDI and our industry partners believe that these recommendations provide a framework that we can work towards in order to ensure the successful ICD-10 transition,” Devin Jopp, Ed.D., WEDI president and CEO, said in a statement. “It is critical that HHS work with private industry to establish credibility in a new compliance date by focusing on critical issues such as readiness transparency, comprehensive testing, and augmented education. Absent these actions, we are concerned that implementation of the code sets will continue to be protracted, adding needless administrative burden and cost to the industry.”