Breaking News: AMA votes to oppose ICD-10 morbidity classification
In the past week the American Medical Association voted to oppose the adoption of a new morbidity classification system that would be required by the U.S. Government in the near future.
The group representing about a quarter of all U.S. doctors voted to stop the implementation of the proposed ICD-10. The organization cites among other issues, poor timing, insignificant patient benefits, and high costs in making their determination.
AMA president Dr. Peter W. Carmel is quoted as saying, “the implementation of ICD-10 will create significant burdens on the practice of medicine with no direct benefit to individual patients’ care.”
The two systems ICD-10 and ICD-10-CM were developed by the WHO and would be replacing the more than 30 year old ICD-9 system. CMS is currently requiring all U.S. providers to upgrade to ICD-10-CM for diagnostic codes by October 1, 2013 with the hospitals being required to make the move to ICD-D-PCS by the same date if they want to get inpatient procedures reimbursed.
According to the American Health Information Management Association, the new codes have already been adopted by all other industrialized nations with the United States being the hold out. However, the transition could be difficult because the new system is perceived as being far more complex than ICD-9. For example, the current system uses around 13,000 diagnostic codes whereas the ICD-10-CM uses an approximate 68,000 codes. The complexity of the new system may also translate to a higher expense. The AMA recently did a study that showed a three-physician practice would have to spend more than $83,000 to implement the new program.