Real-world barriers must be considered as officials develop “operating rules” for making HIPAA administrative and financial transactions more uniform, according to testimony presented last week to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, Health Data Management reports (Goedert [1], Health Data Management, 12/3).
The committee is a federal advisory group.
Background
Health plans are required to adopt operating rules under the federal health reform law. Payers long have used multiple standards for HIPAA transactions but also have developed separate guidelines that kept transactions from being uniform (iHealthBeat, 10/8).
Testimony
According to Gwendolyn Lohse, deputy director of industry group Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, a combined transaction where a health care provider’s funds and data flow together through the U.S.’ Automated Clearing House network — as has been suggested — is not currently feasible.
She said, “Transitioning from the current model would require significant work flow changes for providers — at a time when they are struggling to adopt a number of mandates,” such as electronic health records.
She added that health care providers also are concerned about the security of medical and financial data (Goedert [1], Health Data Management, 12/3).
Other topics discussed at the hearing included:
Lynne Gilbertson, vice president of standards development at the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, said industry members are concerned about regulations that would require Internet connectivity to replace private network connections.
She said any regulations that include connectivity must allow existing connections and must not call for “a ‘rip and replace’ of infrastructure already in place” (Goedert [2], Health Data Management, 12/3).
Source: iHealthBeat
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