Jeremy Weaver

And just when you thought it was gone .. HIPAA is back and better than ever!

For those of us that lived through the Standard Transactions and Code Set updates to our medical office billing software back in 2003 that moved the industry's hodge-podge of EDI transactions to a standard format (ANSI 4010), we probably aren't to eager to relive it.

Well get ready ... because it is coming again.

In January CMS published 2 new final rules:

The first is an update to the standard transactions formats with the transition to ANSI 5010. This is long over due, and is scheduled for implementation by all covered entities by Jan 1, 2012. (Jan 1, 2013 for small health plans)
The second rule is specific to the transition to ICD-10 codes. Again, this has been talked about for a long time and now it seems like with the 5010 implementation this will be possible. Implementation is scheduled for Oct 1, 2013 for all covered entities.

These rules are available at the Federal Register.

Bradford-Scott Data Corp has already started our preliminary research of the two new rules to determine what impact it will have on our physician billing software, what changes/updates we might have to make to our medical billing systems and more importantly how this will impact your cash flow. In the coming months we will be working closely with our industry partners in both the practice management product development and clearinghouse areas to make sure these transitions will be as smooth as possible.

For more information about HIPAA and the new final rules, please visit the CMS website at

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/regsguidance.asp

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