All across the country hospitals have been bracing for the scheduled Oct. 1, 2015, transition from ICD-9 coding to ICD-10.  It had been scheduled for Oct. 1, 2014, but the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 delayed it until Oct. 1, 2015.  Before that it was scheduled for Oct. 1, 2013, but in 2012 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services delayed it until Oct. 1, 2014.

Now seven Republican Congressmen have introduced a bill (H.R. 2126) that would prohibit the Oct. 1 transition.  And the bill has one of those names it’s hard to oppose: “The Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2015.”  The bill’s sponsors say ICD-10 won’t improve health but will increase government regulation and put a strain on the entire American medical community.

On the other side of the issue is The Coalition for ICD-10, representing some of the biggest trade groups in American health care, including the Blue Cross & Blue Shield Assoc., America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the Advanced Technology Assoc.

By way of background, “ICD” stands for International Classification of Diseases.  Established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the public health arm of the United Nations, it’s a system of codes for identifying health conditions and treatments.  Hospitals and physicians use the system—currently the ICD-9—when they enter reports to Medicare, Medicaid, and other insurers.

Guess when the WHO released ICD-10?  Twenty-three years ago, in 1992.  Australia began implementing it in 1998; Canada, in 2000.  Countries all over the world, from Korea to Dubai, adopted it years ago.  But for some in the U.S. 23 years isn’t enough time to prepare for the transition.