AMA Panel Votes to Skip ICD-10, Expand Medicare/Medicaid Eligibility and Reimbursement

The American Medical Association wants to keep ICD-9 through 2017 and is supporting a series of reforms to Medicare and Medicaid that, it argues, would benefit beneficiaries as well as patients.

The AMA House of Delegates, which met this week in Honolulu, debated wide-ranging policies that affect every aspect of the healthcare provider industry. Several recommendations by the House dealt directly with the revenue cycle, among them:

Collecting from Medicare for treatment by unenrolled physicians: The House affirmed support for physicians who choose not to enroll in Medicare, but at the same time support beneficiaries’ right to receive reimbursement from Medicare for treatment from unenrolled physicians.

Medicare contribution system: Delegates also adopted policy recommending a set of principles that should be included in a Medicare defined contribution system that would enable beneficiaries to purchase the coverage of their choice from among competing health insurance plans, including traditional Medicare.

ICD-10: The House resolved to vigorously advocate that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) eliminate the implementation of the ICD-10 code set and instead implement ICD-11 in 2017. CMS is requiring ICD-10 as the new standard for Medicare billing starting Oct. 1, 2014.

Medicaid eligibility: Delegates set policy for the AMA to advocate at the state level to expand Medicaid eligibility to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The new policy calls on the AMA to push for an increase in Medicaid payments to physicians and improvements and innovations in Medicaid that will reduce administrative burdens and deliver health care services more efficiently, even as coverage is expanded.

Click here for a complete summary of the action taken at the AMA House of Delegates meeting.