Rushing To Get HIPAA ExtensionsRushing To Get HIPAA Extensions

HIPAA's privacy provisions are binding--and the deadline to meet the new rules is fast approaching.

information Staff, Contributor

October 11, 2002

2 Min Read
information logo in a gray background | information

There's no way that every company in the health-care industry will meet federal requirements regarding electronic transactions and codes by the Oct. 16 deadline. The question now is, how many of the 2 million targeted companies will even meet an Oct. 15 deadline to apply for an extension? The new transaction-and-code rules are part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which among other things aims to make health data more secure.

Except for small businesses that use only paper transactions, any organization using electronic transmission for health-care billing or other related transactions has to comply with HIPAA or file for the extension. Those companies include insurance firms, payment clearinghouses, hospitals, and HMOs.

About 400,000 health-related organizations have applied for one-year extensions to become HIPAA compliant, says a spokesman at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), which is overseeing the new regulations. Companies that fail to request an extension will be presumed HIPAA-compliant on Oct. 16, and could face fines if, in fact, they're not.

Bill Lazarus, assistant VP of technology and communication at St. Joseph Health Systems, operator of 15 hospitals in California and Texas, says his company has applied for the extension. "You really have to apply for the extension, because nearly none of the players are compliant yet," he says.

As the deadline approaches, there has been a significant uptick in the volume of electronic and paper applications for extensions filed, as well as a tenfold increase in calls for help to a CMS hot line, the spokesman says.

Last week, CMS received more than 19,000 extension applications in one day, versus the 9,000 a week that it had been averaging earlier this year. Calls to the hot line shot up from an average of 100 calls a day to nearly 1,000 calls last week.

The CMS is encouraging companies to seek extensions. "We don't want you not to apply for an extension if you know you're not going to be compliant in time." In fact, he says, even the CMS has filed for an extension because it needs to conduct more technology work to become compliant.

Read more about:

20022002
Never Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.

You May Also Like


More Insights