2013 ICD-10 Deadline? Delayed… Again.

According to a recent HHS news release, the Department of Health and Human Services announced its plan to delay the original October 2013 deadline to convert coding to meet the ICD-10 requirement, for the second time. In 2008, the compliance date was set for October of 2011; yet by January of 2009, the date was pushed back two years to October of 2013. While providers are concerned about the consequent administrative burdens which will be imposed by coding compliance, leading government officials as well as the American Health Information Management Association have both insisted that this unified coding standard will result in much optimism for the future of the nation’s healthcare system. Such advocates strongly emphasize the ICD-10’s long-term benefits for both providers and patients. But healthcare providers aren’t the only ones to express a sense of hesitancy. In many instances the American Medical Association has referred to the ICD-10 initiative as expensive and inconvenient.

So if not 2011 and not 2013… when?