Partial Code Freeze Prior to ICD-10 Implementation

At the ICD-9-CM Coordination & Maintenance Committee Meeting (September 15, 2010), it was announced that the committee had finalized the decision to implement a partial freeze for both ICD-9-CM codes and ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS codes prior to implementation of ICD-10 on October 1, 2013. There was considerable support for this partial freeze.


The partial freeze will be implemented as follows:

• The last regular annual update to both ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets will be made on October 1, 2011.
• On October 1, 2012 there will be only limited code updates to both ICD-9- CM and ICD- 10 code sets to capture new technology and new diseases.
• There will be no updates to ICD-9 -CM on October 1, 2013 as the system will no longer be a HIPAA standard.

On October 1, 2014 regular updates to ICD-10 will begin. The ICD-9 Coordination & Maintenance Committee will continue to meet twice a year during the freeze. At these meetings the public will be allowed to comment on whether or not requests for new diagnosis and procedure codes should be created based on the need to capture new technology or disease. Any code requests that do not meet the criteria will be evaluated for implementation within ICD-10 on or after October 1, 2014, once the partial freeze is ended.

To view the transcript of the meeting, go to: http://www.cms.gov/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/03_meetings.asp. From there, select the September 15-16, 2010 meeting transcript in the download section, and then from the ZIP files, select the 091510_Morning_Transcript file. This section appears on page 4 of the 78-page proceeding.

A walk at NAHC

Photos from Day 1 of NAHC

Great Opening Night at NAHC 2010

Wow, what a great start to the 29^th Annual National Association for Homecare and Hospice Expo. This year’s event is being held at the Gaylord Texan Resort on Grapevine Lake in Grapevine, TX, outside of Dallas. If you’ve never been here, it’s worth the trip. As they say, “everything is bigger in Texas” and that is no lie.

There are about 3,000 attendees and probably 300+ exhibitors with lots of energy. We posted a few videos on our YouTube channel to give you a feel of the festivities. You can also follow us on Twitter and be sure to like us on Facebook.

More to come later. Off to see former President George W. Bush give the keynote address.