The ICD-10 Deadline That Wasn't

By Ken Congdon

If Congress didn’t pass the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 in April, we’d be transitioning to ICD-10 right about now. However, as we all know, the Oct. 1, 2014 deadline was pushed back a year as part of this legislation. Many providers were relieved by this stay of execution because they weren’t prepared. Others were miffed because they felt they wasted several months and millions of dollars readying themselves for a coding overhaul that never happened. In either case, the message to providers from CMS and associations like AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) has been to use the extra time to your advantage. In other words, if you were unprepared for ICD-10 prior to the deadline extension, use this time to get your house in order. If you were ready for the ICD-10 transition this year, use the time to add training and testing to your ICD-10 transition plan.