From the American Academy of Ophthalmology

Physicians have an additional year, until Oct. 14, 2014, to transition from the ICD-9 coding system to ICD-10. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is delaying the mandatory transition in part because of the number of federal compliance burdens that physician practices face, including requirements of the Medicare electronic health record incentive program and upcoming penalties for not participating in the Physician Quality Reporting System.

HHS also announced that health plans must now use a unique health plan identifier in their transactions with physicians, to reduce the amount of administrative time that physician offices spend interacting with them. This requirement is expected to streamline billing, verification of patient eligibility and receipt of the remittance advice for claim payments. HHS has published a fact sheet with more details about its changes.