New details on the ICD-10 delay were scarce at the ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting in Baltimore on March 5.
CMS has yet to decide how much extra time there will be or whether the current partial code freeze on ICD-9 will be lifted. The federal agency is in information-gathering mode, Denise Buenning, director of administrative simplification in CMS’ Office of e-Health Standards and Services, told meeting attendees. CMS is receiving feedback from stakeholders such as providers, coders, payers and software vendors, she said.
“We are very much aware of the fact that the industry needs to have a decision on this very quickly, so we are working with our Office of General Counsel to determine what is the most appropriate, fastest and, most importantly, legal vehicle we can use to get that decision out once it’s made,” Buenning told attendees.
And the decision may not come out as a proposed rule. “There are a lot of different regulatory mechanisms out there that [CMS] can use,” Buenning said. She identified a proposed rule, an interim rule with comment, a Federal Register notice or an order on behalf of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as possible means for alerting the public to the federal agency’s decision.