Practice Management Alert

If you're still not submitting electronic claims in compliance with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, then you'll likely be waiting quite a bit longer to get paid.
 
That's the bottom line from a Feb. 27 program transmittal (change request 2981), which states the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will tweak its HIPAA contingency plan to push providers to get in line "as soon as possible."

Effective July 1 -- with an implementation date of July 6 -- all claims received in pre-HIPAA format will be waiting at least 27 days for reimbursement, while those claims in compliance will be eligible for payment in half that time.

Lesson learned: Providers who can't afford lengthy delays on reimbursement need to step up their HIPAA compliance efforts.