AMA Votes to “Vigorously” Stop ICD-10

Yesterday, the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association voted “to work vigorously to stop implementation of ICD-10,” according to the news release on AMA’s website. AMA’s presdient, Peter W. Camel, MD stated, “The implementation of ICD-10 will create significant burdens on the practice of medicine with no direct benefit to individual patients’ care. At a time when we are working to get the best value possible for our health care dollar, this massive and expensive undertaking will add administrative expense and create unnecessary workflow disruptions. The timing could not be worse as many physicians are working to implement electronic health records into their practices. We will continue working to help physicians keep their focus where it should be – on their patients.”
According to a 2008 study by Nachimson Advisors, LLC the implementation cost for a three-physician practice could be as much as $83,290, while a 100-physician practice might pay more than $2.7 million (Table 1). (View the full study)
At a time where healthcare providers are struggling with other costly competing priorities such as Meaningful Use, etc. Does the potential financial savings of stopping the implementation of ICD-10 outweigh all of the benefits of converting to ICD-10? Will CMS make another extension past the October 1, 2013 deadline?