Energy and the Environment

Palmer Introduces Bill to Protect Access to Healthcare for Small Towns and Rural Areas Protecting patient access to health care is very important. Unfortunately, access to health care, especially in small towns and rural areas, is now threatened by the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, known as ICD-10. ICD-10, which will be implemented in just a few months, is the newest version of the medical coding system, which includes 55,000 more physician diagnostic codes than ICD-9, as well as 87,000 additional procedural codes. While ICD-10 is an international system, the U.S. is the only country in the world that ties it directly to reimbursement via Medicare and Medicaid. This means that ICD-10 has the potential to disrupt medical practices that have fewer resources to implement this massive new coding system.