The announcement that CMS will delay the implementation deadline for ICD-10 adds more uncertainty to the

already-confusing final phases of payer ICD-10 projects . For many payers,the remaining project phases will focus on testing ICD-10 migr ation solutions. According to a Summit presentation by Janice Young of IDC Healt h Insights, most payers will be heavily involved in ICD-10 system testing by mid -2012; and other forms of testing such as regression,user acceptance, performanc e and comparison testing by late 2012. She based her assessment on results of an IDC Health Insights survey of payers and released those results at the ICD-10 S ummit.While health plans are moving quickly into these testing phases, major que stions remain unanswered about how to approach testing, given the pervasiveness of ICD-10 impact across healthcare enterprises.