HHS makes official a one-year delay for ICD-10

Medscape: HHS Nails Down Delay Of Controversial ICD-10
As expected, physicians will not need to start using a new and controversial set of diagnostic codes called ICD-10 until October 1, 2014, a year later than originally scheduled, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today. The 1-year delay, first proposed by HHS in April and now nailed down in final regulations, comes in response to complaints by organized medicine about the administrative burden of converting to ICD-10. The American Medical Association and other medical societies told HHS that converting to the more voluminous and complicated set of diagnostic codes could cost medical practices tens of thousands of dollars and interfere with their migration to electronic health records and electronic prescribing. These groups have called on HHS to come up with a simpler replacement for the current set of diagnostic codes -; called ICD-9 -; now in use (Lowes, 8/24).