CHICAGO -- If ICD-10, the controversial coding update that has been delayed three times, does go live on Oct. 1, the American Medical Association (AMA) is likely to demand a grace period so that payments to physicians will not be delayed.
That was the message delivered during a drawn-out hearing at the AMA annual meeting that considered exactly how the organization should position itself since Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have signaled unwillingness to agree to another delay -- or to go along with the AMA's initial suggestion to simply scrap ICD-10.
That ICD-10 is a flashpoint for the more than 500 members of the AMA's House of Delegates, and that was evident from the start of Sunday's proceedings.
The Oklahoma delegation came to Chicago armed with a resolution asking the AMA to respond to ICD-10 by exhorting physicians nationwide to boycott the new codes -- a proposal that triggered an immediate review by the AMA's office of general counsel. That review, in turn, moved the House of Delegates committee on rules and credentials to recommend that the house not permit debate or discussion on the Oklahoma resolution for fear that it could expose the AMA to the possibility of legal action from the .
But ICD-10 did get plenty of discussion, debate, and testimony during a reference committee hearing.
The issue was simple: Since the AMA was not successful in getting ICD-10 shelved, what should it do now?
, a urologist who is president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, had an answer: make sure that physicians are granted a 2-year grace period to avoid what he predicted would be financial disaster.
In addition, his resolution -- backed by his state and a swath of individual states, specialty societies, and section councils of the AMA -- asks the AMA to find a way for doctors to opt out of contracts with Medicare and all payers if the physicians decide they cannot comply with ICD-10.
And most interestingly, the resolution asks that if the AMA fails to work out this so-called soft-landing compromise by Sept. 1, that the AMA consider a "judicial remedy to prevent this government mandate from closing physicians practices and harming their patients."
The AMA will consider ICD-10 policy and other issues when its House of Delegates begins voting Monday afternoon.