Countering the position of the American Medical Association, the American Health Information Management Association is urging its members to continue preparing for the October 2013 federally mandated conversion to the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision of diagnostic and procedural codes.

"If healthcare providers stop their ICD-10 planning and implementation now and wait to see if Congress will take action, they will not be ready in time for the compliance date," said Dan Rode, AHIMA vice president for advocacy and policy, in a statement (PDF).

Last week, AMA Executive Vice President and CEO Dr. James Madara asked in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner to stop the ICD-10 upgrade "and to call on stakeholders to assess an appropriate replacement for ICD-9."

But AHIMA, which has long pushed for the ICD-10 conversion, is saying now is not the time to waiver.

"The move to ICD-10-CM/PCS is at the foundation of healthcare information changes under way in the United States," Rode said. "Without ICD-10 data, there will be serious gaps in our ability to extract important patient health information that will give physicians and the healthcare industry measures for quality of care, provide important public health surveillance, support modern-day research and move to a payment system based on quality and outcomes."

Stopping implementation would result in a significant financial loss to the federal government as well as those healthcare providers, health plans, claims clearinghouses and technology vendors that have invested in the transition and been preparing for the last several years, Rode said.