Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Have you deferred a good chunk of your Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance efforts to the 11th hour? If so, you're not alone, according to a new survey from the Health Information and Management Systems Society and Montgomery Village, MD-based consultancy Phoenix Health Systems. According to the survey, as of early January a mere 9 percent of providers and 5 percent of payors had actually completed privacy remediation - despite the fact that the April 14 deadline for privacy compliance was looming ahead. Moreover, only 6 percent of providers and 11 percent of payors had completed transactions and code sets remediation. The transaction testing deadline is also just around the corner - it hits on April 16. Nevertheless, 75 percent of providers and 83 percent of payors expect to be fully compliant with the privacy rule by the deadline. Reports from the field suggest that many providers were waiting until the last minute on many compliance efforts out of fear that the Department of Health and Human Services would change the rules at the 11th hour. According to the survey, the three biggest challenges for HIPAA compliance have proved to be: understanding and interpreting HIPAA requirements, integrating new policies and procedures, and resolving issues with third parties. To see the survey, go to http://www.hipaadvisory.com/action/surveynew/Winter2003.htm.