As part of President Obama's commitment to reducing regulatory burden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen G Sebelius today announced that HHS will initiate a process to postpone the date by which certain health care entities have to comply with International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10).
The final rule adopting ICD-10 as a standard was published in January 2009 and set a compliance date of October 1, 2013 - a delay of two years from the compliance date initially specified in the 2008 proposed rule. HHS will announce a new compliance date moving forward. "ICD-10 codes are important to many positive improvements in our health care system," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "We have heard from many in the provider community who have concerns about the administrative burdens they face in the years ahead. We are committing to work with the provider community to reexamine the pace at which HHS and the nation implement these important improvements to our health care system." ICD-10 codes provide more robust and specific data that will help improve patient care and enable the exchange of our health care data with that of the rest of the world that has long been using ICD-10. Entities covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) will be required to use the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codes. The full text of this excerpted HHS press release (issued Thu Feb 16) can be found at http://www.HHS.gov/news/press/2012pres/02/20120216a.html<http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/02/20120216a.html>. ________________________________ It's Not too Late to Give and Get the Flu Vaccine. Take advantage of each office visit and protect your patients against the seasonal flu. Medicare will continue to pay for the seasonal flu vaccine and its administration for all Medicare beneficiaries through the entire flu season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends that patients, healthcare workers and caregivers be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Protect your patients. Protect your family. Protect yourself. Get the Flu Vaccine-Not the Flu. Remember - The flu vaccine plus its administration are covered Part B benefits. CMS has posted the 2011-2012 seasonal flu vaccine payment limits at http://www.CMS.gov/McrPartBDrugAvgSalesPrice/10_VaccinesPricing.asp. Note that the flu vaccine is NOT a Part D-covered drug. For more information on coverage and billing of the flu vaccine and its administration, as well as related educational provider resources, visit http://www.CMS.gov/MLNProducts/35_PreventiveServices.asp and http://www.cms.gov/immunizations. ________________________________ Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
