WASHINGTON – The Medical Group Management Association, which represents 21,500 members, says the government’s proposed Oct 1, 2011, deadline for the healthcare industry to convert from ICD-9 code sets to ICD-10 is too short.

However, even as the MGMA decried the deadline as one that could wreak havoc on medical practices and other healthcare organizations, the American Health Information Management Association, which represents 51,000 health information management professionals, said it’s about time.

“The proposed regulation simply does not give the industry the time necessary to implement ICD-10,” William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of MGMA, said in a statement released last month.

Because ICD-10 contains 10 times the number of codes as ICD-9, the newer code set will require vast changes for medical groups, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, he said.
ICD-9 contains 17,000 codes and is expected to start running out of available codes next year. The ICD-10 code sets contain more than 155,000 codes.

American Health Information Manage-ment Association CEO Linda Kloss said ICD-10 will better allow for the measurement of quality patient care and the international exchange of information on public health, pandemic and research that will help make policy and care decisions.

“The American Health Information Management Association is excited to hear the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to adopt ICD-10 classification upgrades,” she said.