All El Paso physicians are encouraged to sign an online petition that urges our congressman, Beto O'Rourke, to co-sponsor HR 2126. The bill would stop the October 1, 2015 ICD-10
implementation.

Congressman O'Rourke has been an outstanding representative of the El Paso medical
community and been very responsive to all of our concerns. This online petition is a great way for El Paso physicians to become engaged in the public policy process and demonstrate their interest in a key issue such as the ICD-10 implementation.

To learn more about the legislation, visit this link.
AMA Letter to Representative Poe.

Dear Congressman O'Rourke,

As physicians in the El Paso medical community, we are writing to encourage you to co-sponsor HR 2126, which would block the October 1, 2015 implementation date for ICD-10.

Physicians are overwhelmed with the prospect of the tremendous administrative and financial burdens of transitioning to ICD-10. ICD-10 consists of 68,000 codes -- a five-fold increase from the approximately 13,000 diagnosis codes currently in ICD-9. Implementation of ICD-10 will affect physician claims submission and most business processes within a physician's practice, including verifying patient eligibility, obtaining pre-authorization for services, documentation of the patient's visit, research activities, public health reporting, and quality reporting. As HIPAA-covered entities, physicians will be responsible for complying with this ICD-10 mandate, and therefore will bear the entire cost of such a transition. Furthermore, physicians face the prospect of significant disruption in claims processing and payment during the transition to ICD-10 and any physician who is unable to transition to ICD-10 by the implementation date simply will not get paid.

The American Medical Association, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and other medical specialty society groups strongly support HR 2126.