A House Representative has reintroduced a bill that would stop the implementation of ICD-10.
Reintroduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), the Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2015 seeks to prohibit the federal government from requiring the medical community from implementing ICD-10 codes, which are currently slated to go into effect Oct. 1.
The bill implies ICD-10 implementation will be too costly to providers. A statement on Rep. Poe's website cites studies indicating the new codes could cost between $56,000 and $8 million to implement.
"The new ICD-10 codes will not make one patient healthier," Rep. Poe said in the statement. "What it will do is put an unnecessary strain on the medical community who should be focused on treating patients, not implementing a whole new bureaucratic language… Big government must get out of the way and let doctors do what they were trained to do — help people."
In April 2013, Rep. Poe introduced the same legislation, then called Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2013, though the referred House committees never took up the bill.
The Journal of AHIMA indicates this version of the bill will meet a similar fate, as Rep. Poe is not on one of the referred House committees and would need to gather a critical mass of individuals to co-sponsor the bill. Additionally, the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing in February regarding ICD-10 in which several senior committee members indicated support for the transition.
The Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2015 is co-sponsored by Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Morgan H. Griffith (R-Va.), Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Rep. David P. Roe (R-Tenn.).
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