Practice Management Alert

You now have some recourse if a software vendor, clearinghouse or payer is getting in the way of your efforts to comply with the HIPAA transactions rule that governs electronic claim filing.

CMS' Office of HIPAA Standards (OHS) has created the Administrative Simplification Enforcement Tool, or ASET, for providers and all other covered entities to submit complaints.

ASET allows you to electronically fill out a complaint against someone "whose actions impact the ability of a transaction to be accepted and/or efficiently processed," OHS says.

Here's how ASET works: If OHS receives your valid HIPAA transaction complaint through its ASET system, OHS will notify the entity involved that you have filed a complaint against them. The entity you filed the complaint against will then have the opportunity to demonstrate compliance, its good-faith efforts to comply, or submit a corrective action plan, OHS says. The primary goal of the enforcement process is to bring about voluntary compliance,  OHS says.

Last resort only: Providers should first file a complaint with the software vendor or other obstructive party, and use ASET only as a last resort for resolving difficult compliance problems, says consultant Stephanie Collins with Gates Moore & Co. in Atlanta.

To read more about the ASET program or to file a complaint, go to https://htct.hhs.gov/.