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.

Told to pick a health plan on price, a study finds, consumers choose the most expensive option. Is that really surprising?

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded a study, results of which appear in the journal Health Affairs, that followed 1,421 workers who were given varying levels of information about health insurance plans and asked to pick.

Those of you who have been providing annual wellness visits (AWVs) in 2012 can now download an encounter form designed specifically for the subsequent visit. Download the file by going to the March Tool of the Month article and clicking the "Download File" link at the top. If you're interested in DecisionHealth's full set of AWV encounter tools, go to http://pbn.decisionhealth.com/Articles/Detail.aspx?id=511707.

CMS' monthly open-door forum revealed announcements of mostly old news already covered in Part B News, with a few notable exceptions: there will be an open-door forum on annual wellness visits (AWVs) on March 28 and the surrogate program for PECOS revalidation is close to going live.

The next ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting is planned for Monday, March 5th. Don't miss out on any breaking news. This is the first time CMS’ ICD-10 stakeholders have faced the public since the delay and DecisionHealth Daily be there for blow by blow coverage of what is said, offering possible clues into the future of ICD-10 and what it means for people who need to keep preparing for ICD-9 changes.