What's Being Done to Oppose and Support ICD-10 Implementation

The American Medical Association has taken the next step in its vigorous opposition to ICD-10 implementation. This week, James L. Madara, MD, the AMA's executive vice president and CEO, wrote a letter asking Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner to stop implementation of ICD-10-CM/PCS.

Madara's letter (PDF download) outlining the reasons why ICD-10 coding is a burden on physicians is a bit of a rehash of last year's AMA resolution. But there are a couple new points worth highlighting. First, start with the letter's conclusion:

"Stopping the implementation of ICD-10, and calling on appropriate stakeholders including physicians, hospitals, payers, national and state medical and informatics associations, to assess an appropriate replacement for ICD-9 will help to keep adoption of EHRs and physician participation in quality and health IT programs on track and reduce costly burdens on physician practices. "...