New Health Care Law Provisions Cut Red Tape, Save up to $4.6 Billion ICD-10 Compliance Delayed Until Oct 1, 2014
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced a proposed rule that would establish a unique health plan identifier under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The proposed rule would implement several administrative simplification provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The proposed changes would save health care providers and health plans up to $4.6 billion over the next ten years, according to estimates released by the HHS today. The estimates were included in a proposed rule that cuts red tape and simplifies administrative processes for doctors, hospitals, and health insurance plans. The rule simplifies the administrative process for providers by proposing that health plans have a unique identifier of a standard length and format to facilitate routine use in computer systems. This will allow provider offices to automate and simplify their processes, particularly when processing bills and other transactions. The proposed rule also delays required compliance by one year-from Oct 1, 2013 to Oct 1, 2014-for new codes used to classify diseases and health problems. These codes, known as the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition (ICD-10) diagnosis and procedure codes will include new procedures and diagnoses and improve the quality of information available for quality improvement and payment purposes. The proposed rule announced today is the third in a series of administrative simplification rules in the new health care law. HHS released the first in July of 2011 and the second in January of 2012, and plans to announce more in the coming months. More information on the proposed rule is available on fact sheets at http://www.CMS.gov/apps/media/fact_sheets.asp. The proposed rule may be viewed at www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx<http://www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx>. Comments are due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The full text of this excerpted CMS press release (issued Mon Apr 9) can be found at http://www.CMS.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=4329. ________________________________ 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.
