Now that it's clear that the deadline for ICD-10 compliance will not budge, health care professionals who were eager for more lee-way must face some uncomfortable truths. Practices across the country must adapt to the first change in medical coding in 30 years, all while adhering to a bevy of new documentation requirements under meaningful use stage 2. Recently on the blog, we reported that many hospitals were not taking the full cost of EHR implementation into account before pursuing this avenue, and now it seems the same may be true for the ICD-10 changeover.

Last month, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement on ICD-10 costs, positing that the expense may be as much as three times that of previous estimates from 2008. This is based on a recent study commissioned by the AMA that involved surveying physicians of varying specialties and practice sales.

"Continuing to compel physicians to adopt this new coding structure threatens to disrupt innovations by diverting resources away from areas that are expected to help lower costs and improve the quality of care," explained AMA President Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven in a press release.

These findings led the AMA to contact  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and request an alteration to the mandated change currently set for October 1, but all signs are pointing to a staunch deadline.

When your allotted budget is exceeded, it's easy to panic and start cutting corners. However, when it comes to ICD-10 and chiropractic EHR, this knee-jerk reaction may ultimately lead to even greater costs both financially and in terms of patient care. It is only by choosing the best chiropractic EHR software, which should be equipped with ICD-10 capability, and committing to implementation from initial purchase through training and troubleshooting that you can reap the many benefits of this digital shift.