Dear Acting Administrator Tavenner:
The undersigned organizations appreciate the Obama administration’s decision to delay the
implementation of ICD-10 by one year to October 1, 2014. As you are aware, the American
Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates approved new policy in November 2012,
calling on the AMA to advocate that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
eliminate the implementation of ICD-10, and to immediately reiterate that the burdens imposed
by ICD-10 will force many physicians in small practices out of business.
The implementation of ICD-10 will create significant burdens on the practice of medicine with no
direct benefit to individual patient care, and will compete with other costly transitions associated
with quality and health IT reporting programs. On top of these overlapping federal regulatory
requirements, physicians face the threat of steep Medicare physician payment cuts due to the
flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR), including a 26.5 percent cut on January 1, 2013, and a two
percent deficit reduction sequester cut also beginning in January 2013. Stopping the
implementation of ICD-10 is a critical, necessary step for removing regulatory burdens on
physicians and ensuring that small physician practices are able to keep their doors open.
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