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1 >> H I P A A n e w s:

*** Bill Puts HHS in Charge of Medical Disaster Response ***

Congress passed a pandemic flu bill last week that puts the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) completely in charge of federal medical response to bioterrorism attacks or disease outbreaks, an action that removes the Homeland Security Department from any lead role. According to the bill, HHS must establish a nationwide pubic health situational awareness network. The network will be an interoperable group of systems to share medical data and information that will enhance early detection and rapid response to public health emergencies.

Read more.

*** NCVHS Finds Providers May Not Meet NPI Compliance Date ***

On November 29, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) sent a letter to HHS Secretary Leavitt giving its preliminary observations on the industry's progress on National Provider Identifier (NPI) implementation. NCVHS concludes that, while significant progress is being made toward compliance, some key activities may not be completed by the compliance date, which has the potential to disrupt or delay payments to providers. To date, NPIs have been issued to an estimated 60 percent of providers. However, based on testimony, few of the providers who have obtained NPIs have communicated their NPIs to their health plans, few providers have communicated their NPIs to the facilities where they practice, and few are sending NPIs in HIPAA transactions.

Read NCVHS' letter on NPI implementation.

*** HHS Updates Status of HIPAA Rules in Semi-Annual Agenda ***

HHS published in the December 11 issue of the Federal Register its semi-annual regulatory agenda, a summary of rulemaking actions under development or review by the department. There continues to be no publication date for a proposed national health plan (payer) identifier. The following HIPAA-related items are on the schedule:

• In January, HHS expects to publish a follow-up notice to describe the data dissemination processes under the National Provider Identifier (NPI) and any applicable charges for data.
• HSS plans to issue in February a proposed rule exempting the HIPAA Information Tracking System (HITS) from the notification, access, correction and amendment provisions of the Privacy Act concerning records compiled for law enforcement purposes.
• In March, HHS plans to issue a proposed rule to revise some of the HIPAA Transactions and Code Sets (TCS) standards. In June, HHS plans to propose streamlining the adoption process for modifications to existing electronic TCS regulations.
• A final rule establishing an electronic standard format for electronic claims attachments is still not expected until September 2008.

Read more.

*** Most Americans Want Electronic Health Data, But Concerned About Privacy ***

Americans overwhelmingly want to have electronic copies of their medical records and believe that having greater access to their information will reduce medical mistakes and costly repeat procedures, according to a new survey commissioned by the Markle Foundation. But eight in 10 Americans are very concerned about identity theft or fraud and the possibility of their data being used by marketers without their permission – with three-quarters of those surveyed saying the government has a role in establishing privacy and confidentiality protections for electronic health information. The findings were released last week at the Connecting Americans to Their Healthcare conference in Washington, DC.

Read more.

*** HHS Call for E-Health Records Answered ***

Responding to HHS' call for employers to promote health IT, several large companies announced last week that they are collaborating to develop web-based employee personal health records. Applied Materials Inc., BP America Inc., Intel Corp., Pitney Bowes Inc. and Wal-Mart are funding a nonprofit institute to develop a web-based framework through which US employees, dependents and retirees can maintain lifelong personal health records. Together, the companies will provide this benefit to more than 2.5 million individuals.

Meanwhile, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) said yesterday that they've created a "health-plan based" personal health record (PHR) model and portability standards that will enable consumers to transfer their data when they change insurers. The companies combined provide medical insurance coverage to 200 million Americans.

Read more about the employee web-based PHR initiative.

Read more about the health-plan based PHR model and standards.

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