HHS will delay ICD-10-CM till October 1, 2014

A story in Health Data Management indicates that the Department of Health and Human Services will issue a final rule that delays the switch to ICD-10-CM till October 1, 2014.  The original switch date was October 1, 2013.

The reason for the switch is nothing more than too much regulation all at once.  Either ICD-10-CM or meaningful use of electronic health records (another HHS mandate implemented by means of a regulatory rule) had to give way.  We thought that ICD-10-CM had more sway, but were pleasantly surprised that the archaic code set took a back seat.

We even had some hope that HHS would still see the light and scrap ICD-10-CM altogether.  But alas.