AMA to Study ICD-11 Feasibility

The American Medical Association at its annual policy making meeting has approved a resolution to evaluate preliminary versions of ICD-11 as a possible alternative to replace ICD-9.

The AMA in November 2011 took a stand to oppose implementation of the ICD-10 coding set and seek one or more alternative coding sets. After the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in April 2012 issued a proposed rule to postpone the compliance date to Oct. 1, 2014, AMA sent a comment letter advocating pushing back the compliance date, at minimum, to Oct. 1, 2015. This would result in a two-year delay, during which CMS should engage stakeholders to assess if an alternative code set is more appropriate, according to the association.

Now, the AMA will study whether skipping ICD-10 and transitioning at a later date to ICD-11 would be less burdensome on physicians, and report findings to its House of Delegates in June 2013.