Healthcare industry reacts to ICD-10 delay

What does the ICD-10 delay mean for your practice's chiropractic EHR?

What does the ICD-10 delay mean for your practice's chiropractic EHR?

Yesterday we shared with you that, after months of handwringing and stress over the October 1 deadline for ICD-10, implementation for the new coding system has been delayed by a year. While granting clinics and practices an extra 12 months to ready their chiropractic EHR software for the upgrade may seem like a welcome change, the healthcare industry appears decidedly split on the decision. 

Some, as we noted yesterday, are concerned that the extension will only disrupt and strain those that have already invested in the move to ICD-10.  The American Podiatric Medical Association is among those who share this belief, issuing a public statement where they expressed worry over the "significant financial and resource impact" that the delay would have on those organizations that have already taken steps to prepare for a 2014 transition.

On the other hand, many providers in the industry were anxious over this year's looming October deadline. According to EHR Intelligence, recent surveys have found that as many as two-thirds of providers were concerned about how the expenses required in technology upgrades and chiropractic documentation software improvements may impede finances and workflow over the next six months.

"The doctor in a small practice, for example, really needs to be looking at how they're going to use their time, and how they're going to sue their resources," Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven, president of the American Medical Association, told the source back in February. "The timing on this is very bad. Even [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] says that there's the potential here for significant problems in terms of backlog, dollars not being given to the practices that have already delivered the care, and this is again, another one of those things that can destabilize a physician's practice."

Luckily for Dr. Hoven and like-minded practitioners, the ICD-10 delay to October 1, 2015, will provide plenty more time to update to the best chiropractic EHR software

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