When you have questions or concerns about your transition to ICD-10 after Oct. 1, CMS now has an ombudsman to report them to: Dr. William Rogers MD, a practicing emergency room physician who until now has headed up the CMS Physician Regulatory Issues Team (PRIT) in the agency’s communications office.
 
Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt announced Rogers’ appointment during an Aug. 27 call with Medicare providers, saying the ombudsman “will be a one-stop shop for your questions and concerns and an advocate for you with CMS.”
 
The email address you’ll use to send queries: icd10_ombudsman@CMS.hhs.gov.
 
In his work with the PRIT, Rogers already has been serving as a kind of physician ombudsman. He is also a colonel in the U.S. Air Force who recently returned from a tour of duty at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
 
In addition to naming the ICD-10 ombudsman, Slavitt said, CMS has set up and is now staffing a new ICD-10 coordination center at its offices in Baltimore. That center “will be responsible for managing and triaging issues with all of you and with me,” he announced on the call.
 
“As of anything of this magnitude, even with all the planning, there will be bumps and challenges,” Slavitt predicted. “Our job is to plan for them, too.”