A possible government shutdown won’t affect the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans for the October 1 transition to ICD-10, the agency said last week.
CMS said in a media call on Thursday it has staffing flexibility to make sure that the transition, claims processing and other “core operations” wouldn’t be disrupted by a shutdown, according to FierceHealthIT. A shutdown could occur if Congress fails to come to a budget agreement by midnight on September 30.
“In the event of a shutdown, we will continue — and I want to be clear on this — to pay claims, to implement the ICD-10 transition,” said CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Patrick Conway, M.D., MSc, during the media call.
It’s unclear how CMS’ ICD-10 Coordination Center and its ombudsman would be affected by a shutdown, but CMS officials say they haven’t determined how critical the center would be to the transition.
