Putting ICD Updates on Ice, Continued
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have proposed freezing both the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM/PCS code sets prior to ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation. The proposal was announced at the March 9 meeting of the ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee, which maintains the code sets in the US.
Freezing the code sets will allow organizations to focus on the system change without managing code updates at the same time. The implementation deadline for ICD-10-CM/PCS is October 1, 2013.
Under the proposal, the last regular update of ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM/PCS prior to ICD-10 implementation would occur October 1, 2011.
Limited updates to incorporate new diseases and new technology would be permitted on October 1, 2012, and October 1, 2013.
Regular updates of ICD-10-CM/PCS would resume in 2014.
The proposal is similar to recommendations AHIMA published last November, although AHIMA recommended that only urgent updates be considered in 2012 and 2013.
CMS and CDC are soliciting comments on the code set freeze proposal. Comments may be e-mailed to Pat Brooks at CMS and Donna Pickett at CDC. The proposal may be published in the IPPS rule this spring, although that was not certain at the time of the meeting. A final decision is expect no later than this summer.


