Palmer introduces bill to make sure Alabama doctors get paid by Medicaid and Medicare

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June 5, 2015

WASHINGTON — Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL6) introduced legislation in the U.S. House Thursday that would ensure physicians who serve Medicaid and Medicare patients continue to be reimbursed while they are switching over to a new federally-mandated medical coding system.

The 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) is the newest version of the medical coding system, which includes 55,000 more physician diagnostic codes than its predecessor, as well as 87,000 new procedural codes.

“The ongoing implementation of ICD-10 creates significant hurdles for rural and small town healthcare providers,” Palmer said. “ICD-10 includes a five-fold increase in coding, which threatens to hurt productivity, increase mistakes either from human or technological errors and create confusion and difficulties as a result.”

The bill would institute a 2-year grace period, allowing healthcare providers more time to adopt the complex new coding system. Palmer said this measure is vital because current law could deny payment to physicians because of simple coding mistakes, the type of mistakes common when learning a new system.

“This is especially true concerning physicians with small practices and rural hospitals,” Palmer said, “which, unlike larger and more established institutions, are less likely to have sufficient resources to fully prepare for the implementation of ICD-10. This threatens to disrupt health care for many Americans.”

The bill already has 32 cosponsors, including Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions and fellow Alabama Representatives Aderholt (R-AL4), Brooks (R-AL5), Byrne (R-AL1), and Rogers (R-AL3).

“Physicians are in medicine to provide patient care,” Palmer concluded in a press release announcing the legislation, “not to focus on implementing a complicated and burdensome federally mandated coding system. Everyone who is concerned about small-town and rural health care should support this common sense bill.”