New HIPAA ruling gives mixed message

From the September 2000 ACP-ASIM Observer, copyright © 2000 by the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine.

• HHS announces electronic standards to simplify health care transactions
• Health insurance reform: Standards for electronic transactions (Federal Register, August 17, 2000) HHS recently released the first standards regulating electronic health care transactions, but officials warned that they might delay implementing the standards if laws to protect medical data privacy are not enacted.

The new standards, which are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, establish standard formats for electronically transmitting health care claims and other administrative data. HHS hopes that the new standards will reduce paperwork and save the U.S. health care system billions of dollars. Health plans will be required to accept electronic claims, referral authorizations and other transactions that use the standards.

But HHS said that the rule, published in the Aug. 17 "Federal Register," might be withdrawn or suspended if proposed privacy protections for medical information are not in place when the rules are implemented.

The standards are scheduled to take effect 26 months after they appear in the "Federal Register." (Some smaller health care organizations have an additional 12 months to comply.) The mixed message from HHS, however, is making some health care organizations wonder whether they should begin to implement the standards immediately or wait to see if the deadline will be postponed.

HHS is expected to release additional HIPAA standards later this year.

• Feb 2010
• Jan 2010
• Nov/Dec 2009
• Oct 2009
• Sept 2009

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