The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today several changes to the plan for ICD-10 implementation in the US. The changes come as a result of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) hard push for a grace period. AMA President Steven J. Stack, MD, explained the adjustments in a post published today on AMA Viewpoints. We’ve reviewed this post, and here’s what we’ve learned:
- During the first year of the ICD-10 transition, CMS will not deny payment based on ICD-10 coding errors.
- CMS will not subject eligible professionals to ICD-10-related penalties associated with the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) as long as those professionals use codes from the correct ICD-10 family of codes. CMS also will not apply penalties if professionals experience difficulties calculating quality scores for these programs as a result of ICD-10 implementation.
- CMS will authorize advance payments to healthcare providers if Medicare contractors are unable to process claims as a result of problems with ICD-10.
- CMS will establish a communication center to monitor and quickly resolve issues. This includes designating an ICD-10 ombudsman who is devoted to triaging practitioner issues.
Please stay tuned to the WebPT Blog for updates.
