Another ICD10 Delay?

With the current Medicare payment, also known as the 'doc fix,' set to expire in a matter of days (March 31st), Congress is once again making a last ditch effort to halt the legislated 24% paycut. While stopping the pay cut is a good thing, the permanent sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) fix that we have all been hoping for did not happen. Although both parties had passed their own bills designed to replace the problematic SGR formula, disagreements in wording between bills made a consensus impossible.

The compromise between the House and Senate could very well be HR 4302 which passed the House on Thursday, March 27, 2014. This bill now heads to the Senate which will need to decide quickly to avoid payment issues for Medicare providers. The bill includes the following health care related provisions:

• There will be a 0.5% fee increase for Medicare providers for the remainder of 2014 and a zero percent update from January 1, 2015 through March 31, 2015.
• ICD-10 will be delayed until October 1, 2015. Yes, that's right - a delay. The bill says the following in section 212:
     The Secretary of Health and Human Services may not, prior to October 1, 2015, adopt ICD-10 code sets as the standard for code sets under
     section 1173(c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320-2(c)) and section 162.1002 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations.
• Establish two new mental health grant programs designed to improve quality and access to mental health care and substance use treatment. Click here to read more about this provision.
• Increase payment rates in rural areas for hospital and ambulance services.
• Reforms the current Medicare lab fee schedule by adopting market-based private sector payment rates.
• Extends the Medicaid and CHIP express lane option for another year.

Watch for further alerts and information about this important piece of legislation.


- the Find-A-Code Staff

More Items in March 2014

• Mar 27, 2014
  Free Webinar: ICD-10 Deadline Deliverables: What is Expected?
• Mar 10, 2014
  Map-A-Code Updated with CodeBookView™ Icons
• Mar 03, 2014
  Student Special: Essentials Option only $4.95 per month!
• Mar 03, 2014
  ICD-10 Boot Camp - Lehi, Utah - April 2nd & 3rd - 16 AAPC CEUs
• Mar 03, 2014
  WinXP = HIPAA Violation! - New Article
• Mar 01, 2014
  8 Webinars in March

To view more items select a month from our "Items by Month" list.

Or view documentation, coding and billing articles.