In the wake of Tuesday's announcement of a possible ICD-10 delay from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, Government Health IT (govheathit.com) interviewed Dr. Wendy Whittington, CMO of Anthelio Healthcare Solutions. 

The following in an excerpt from the story:

"Q: I don't imagine the AMA alone can really block ICD-10, but what would be the downside for the broader healthcare industry if CMS pushed the compliance deadline back by one year? Or is there a downside to that at all?
A: Pushing the deadline back one year means that we can’t complete all aspects of healthcare reform. Information the government needs to collect to provide effective research on what works and what doesn’t is tied to the more specific information gathered by the ICD-10 codes. Folks who haven’t read ICD-10 don’t understand the benefits of the more detailed coding.

For example, one of the changes in ICD-10 is to better track follow-up care. It is important to healthcare funders and the public to know what specific follow-up care is being given for a particular event or illness. Does the physician actually make changes to the care plan? Or is the physician asking the patient to return just to check in?

Organizations cannot effectively complete strategic planning if rules like this keep changing."

While the healthcare world waits for an official word on the future of ICD-10, we are left to consider the thoughts of Dr. Whittington - what will happen if ICD-10 is pushed? Will other plans and deadlines continue to be pushed as well? Will healthcare reform every fully happen?

For full story: govhealthit.com