Another health information technology group pushed back on the recent HHS decision to indefinitely delay implementation of ICD-10. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives warned against a long delay in the deadline for healthcare organizations to switch over to what is called the ICD-10 family of diagnostic and procedural codes from ICD-9, according to a letter (PDF) to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

That warning followed HHS' Feb. 16 announcement that it was pushing back its Oct. 1, 2013 deadline for ICD-10 implementation to an as yet undetermined future date.

“We believe a prolonged delay to ICD-10 implementation, or more specifically, prolonged uncertainty about the timing and details of a delay, will create more problems than it would solve,” Richard Correll, president and CEO of CHIME, wrote.

He urged Sebelius to set a new ICD-10 conversion deadline and cautioned against the use of separate deadlines for different segments of the healthcare sector. “If the postponement process requires physicians to meet one compliance date and hospitals a different date, unnecessary costs will be incurred,” Correll wrote. “In order for the ICD-10 conversion to go as smoothly as possible, all segments of the provider community need to be in lock step.”

If HHS opts to use staggered compliance dates, CHIME urged earlier deadlines for payers and later implementation for all providers. That delay would give providers a “needed” chance to test ICD-10 transactions with payers.

The CHIME pushback on ICD-10 delay followed similar concerns about negative consequences for both providers and patients raised Feb. 17 by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.