Industry Associations Use Internet Broadcast as Platform
to Reiterate HIPAA Reservations

CHICAGO, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- During an interactive nationwide Internet broadcast on April 23rd presented by the Journal of Health Care Finance, spokespersons for several major national healthcare trade associations repeated their continued concerns about various aspects of HIPAA. Issues included (a) the differing timetables on implementing the various rules under administrative simplification, (b) the risk of installing expensive systems that will later need to be changed, (c) the overall cost of HIPAA compliance to health care providers and (d) the variation among providers in their relative abilities and budgets with respect to HIPAA implementation.

Health care associations represented included the American Hospital Association (AHA), Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association (BC/BS), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Workgroup For Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), Electronic Health Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), and American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA)

Christina Nyquist, director of policy for the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, reinforced the intent of BC/BS to team up with the American Medical Association and the State Medicaid Directors to urge immediate bipartisan sponsorship of a bill in Congress to extend the implementation period of the 'transaction and code set' portion of the administrative simplification section of HIPAA: "We have a concern that the transactions and code set rule that was finalized last August is a clock that has been ticking, and now we have less than 18 months to comply as an entire industry. Yet, we have been receiving a number of reports indicating that providers at the local level-individual doctors, clinics, hospitals-are still behind in implementing HIPAA, and even those who are pursuing it vigorously are finding that it's going to cost a lot more than was originally projected by HHS. Our concern is that providers and health plans need additional time to implement the transaction and code set rule, and we think that time frame should be coordinated with the issuance of the security reg and the identifier reg so the industry can make system changes all at once," said Nyquist.

A poll among participants during the presentation indicated that over half of the respondents felt that no new Congressional legislation will be passed. Over forty percent of respondents indicated that there is confusion in their organizations with respect to HIPAA. At the same time, there appeared to be agreement that hospitals, medical practices, vendors, health plans and others can't just stand still and wait out what might in Washington.

The AHA's Kristin Welsh made clear that hospitals should be moving ahead in a sensible way: "What I would say to hospitals is to at least get going in the planning process, now is a good time to assess what your current situation is: look at how you currently house information, look at how you protect it, look at how you share information, examine your databases, look at your consent process to the extent you have one. At least get all your baseline assessments done now so that when things do become final, you're a little bit further ahead in the process."