First few Article Sentences
Executive Summary
The current uncertainty as to when ICD-10 will become mandatory encourages hospitals and others to reconsider implementation priorities and calendars. Regardless of when the actual implementation date occurs, hospitals and providers are well served to anticipate changes that might occur once the final date arrives.
An effective definitive forecast of the reimbursement impact related to changes to clinical coding is premature until such time as CMS releases the relevant version of the DRG reimbursement parameters that will be in effect with ICD-10. Until that release, any preliminary forecast will be considerably subjective, in particular appreciating the complexities of developing reasonable translation proxies—for which a default standard the industry has declined to produce—for all codes in both sets.