HIMSS Media is postponing the ICD-10 conference scheduled for June 2-3, 2014 in San Diego, California.

The conference was designed to provide attendees with practical guidance on how to successfully manage the transition to the new coding standard, which was to take effect on October 1, 2014. However, on March 27 the industry was caught by surprise when a bill on the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR, formula passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a provision mandating the ICD-10 transition be delayed for at least a year. The bill quickly passed the Senate and was signed into law on April 1.

“HIMSS Media is committed to ensuring our programs provide the highest quality and most relevant content possible. Given the delay in ICD-10 implementation recently mandated by Congress, we decided we should re-evaluate our agenda and consider how the delay will affect the industry’s educational and resource needs to ensure that we honor that commitment,” explained John Whelan, HIMSS Media executive vice president.

Interest in ICD-10 had been running high. A HIMSS webinar scheduled for April 2 on ICD-10 Preparedness featuring guidance from CMS representatives attracted more than 4,000 registered attendees. A CMS representative cancelled his appearance soon after the law passed.

At this point, CMS has not yet provided any guidance on when the transition will take place. The wording of the law leaves the date for the change uncertain:  The law states only that the Department of Health and Human Services may not establish ICD-10 as the standard prior to Oct. 1, 2015. The transition may take place at a later date.

To help answer questions around the transition, HIMSS will present a 30-minute educational session “ICD-10 Delay: Should You Be Delaying Your Implementation?” during the day-long virtual conference, “Accelerating Health IT Transition,” scheduled for June 4, 2014. The session will explore opportunities for moving forward and assess critical issues that organizations need to address to move forward.

HIMSS is also sponsoring an event that WEDI calls an “emergency industry summit to provide an action plan in response to the ICD-10 implementation delay.” The event, “ICD-10 Summit: Developing an Industry Action Plan for ICD-10 Implementation,” will take place April 30 in Reston, Va.