Texas Congressman Files Bill to Halt ICD-10 Conversion

A Texas Congressman has filed a bill to prevent the United States healthcare industry from converting to ICD-10.

This week Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) filed H.R. 1701, a bill “to prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services replacing ICD-9 with ICD-10 in implementing the HIPAA code set standards.” The text of the bill has yet to be officially released, but the title makes it clear that Rep. Poe wants to halt the mandatory conversion to ICD-10 on Oct. 1, 2014.

Earlier this month, Poe spoke on the floor of Congress to rail against ICD-10. “It’s red tape, it’s bureaucracy, and this is what happens when clueless Big Government here in Washington starts telling people out in the workplace – doctors and patients – what they must do,” the Congressman said. “And when the government intrudes into our lives with more regulations, the government continues to make things more complicated. It finds problems in every solution.”