ICD10: "Never Say Never Again"......
From the day, Tavenner or even Kathleen Sebelius announced the CMS intent to delay the ICD-10 implementation, we are regularly going through tons of blogs, twitters, comments of experts that delay will be disastrous for the industry and I am in full agreement to this. Looking in to the larger healthcare industry goals, when the reform is set to establish a perfect balance between the cost & quality, delay in ICD-10 will be a real setback in achieving the optimum outcomes of many parallel initiatives like Meaningful use of EMR, ACO, Value based benefits design & etc.
I understand that there are sensible reasons for pushing the timeline. But, at the same time it's important to realize that how good have we prepared since ICD-10 was pushed for the first time (way back in 2009)? We thought additional timeline will inspire strategic planning. Did that really happen? No, we still encounter the same hick-coughs. What's the guarantee that another grace period will lead to a robust implementation. It's never worth stopping in half way of a set journey and am sure industry leaders are on the same page with me on this.
Moreover, it's never that CMS is going to dump the implementation date too far. If I am good in my judgment & correct in reading between the lines of Kathleen & Tavenner, then me think ICD-10 implementation will most likely have the fate similar to that of HIPAA 5010-" the compliance date still to remain unaltered (Oct 1st 2013), but enforcement to get some additional grace period". If so, then we really have just 20 months to bake this cake.
As many healthcare advocates, I urge to say be on the game. With all the dollars that has been incurred till date, let's not set them all into fire. There are too many unknowns on the way & we can't afford to start things AGAIN. An advice- if we really need to take any different stance with the possible timeline increase, let's achieve ICD-10 benefits and realize its compliance (just the reverse that we intend till date).
