AMA - What You Need to Know for the Upcoming Transition to ICD-10 Currently, the US health care industry uses ICD-9-CM codes for identifying and reporting diagnoses and procedures. ICD-9-CM stands for International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification and is based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) ninth revision of the International Classification of Diseases. Although ICD-9-CM had been in widespread use in health care, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) named it as the standard code for reporting diagnoses and inpatient procedures as of 2003.
In 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a regulation requiring the replacement of the ICD-9-CM code set with the updated version, ICD-10. The deadline for transition to ICD-10 has been extended several times. The initial deadline for transition to ICD-10 was set for October 1, 2013. This date was an extension of two years from the date first proposed by HHS, which the American Medical Association (AMA), along with over 100 physician state and specialty societies, expressed deep concerns over, considering the significant work required to complete such a transition. Many organizations have continued to voice concerns about the aggressive timeframe to implement such a complex code set. In early 2012, the AMA began advocating for the halt of implementation of ICD-10. In February 2012, HHS announced it would further delay the compliance date. As of April 2012, the new proposed compliance date is October 1, 2014.