HIPAA Extension
Legislation Signed
January 11, 2002
On December 27, 2001, President Bush
signed into law H.R. 3323, the Administrative Simplification
Compliance Act (now known as Public Law 107-105). This
law provides for a one year extension of the date for complying
with the HIPAA standard transactions and code set requirements
(to Oct 16, 2003) for any covered entity that submits to
the Secretary of Health and Human Services a plan of how
the entity will come into compliance with the requirements
by October 16, 2003.
The plan must be submitted by October 15, 2002 and shall be a summary
of
(A) An analysis reflecting the extent to which, and the reasons why,
the person is not in compliance.
(B) A budget, schedule, work plan,
and implementation strategy for achieving compliance.
(C) Whether the person plans to use
or might use a contractor or other vendor to assist the
person in achieving compliance.
(D) A timeframe for testing that begins
not later than April 16, 2003.
The law also requires the Department
to develop and promulgate a model compliance form for the
plan by March 31, 2002, and to allow for compliance plans
to be submitted electronically.
Please note that this legislation kept
in place the compliance deadlines for the Privacy Rule
(April 14, 2003 for all covered entities except small health
plans; April 14, 2004 for small health plans).
The Department will be providing the
details of the model form and submission procedures at
a later date.
The law also requires that, by Oct
16, 2003, providers stop submitting paper claims and submit
claims electronically to Medicare. There are waivers for
certain small providers or if there is no method for
electronic submission of claims available. CMS will provide further
details about these requirements through the regulatory process.
You can read the enrolled version of the bill (the version passed by
Congress) at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.3323.ENR:
The Public Law version is expected
to be available at the Government Printing Office shortly.