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Tuesday, 19 February 2013 |
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is moving forward to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The new HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2013.
The final omnibus rule greatly enhances a patient’s privacy protections, provides individuals new rights to their health information, and strengthens the government’s ability to enforce the law.
The changes in the final rulemaking provide the public with increased protection and control of personal health information. The HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules have focused on health care providers, health plans and other entities that process health insurance claims. The most recent changes expand many of the requirements to business associates of these entities that receive protected health information, such as contractors and subcontractors. Some of the largest breaches reported to HHS have involved business associates. Penalties are increased for noncompliance based on the level of negligence with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per violation. The changes also strengthen the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Breach Notification requirements by clarifying when breaches of unsecured health information must be reported to HHS.
Individual rights are expanded in important ways. Patients can ask for a copy of their electronic medical record in an electronic form. When individuals pay by cash they can instruct their provider not to share information about their treatment with their health plan. The final omnibus rule sets new limits on how information is used and disclosed for marketing and fundraising purposes and prohibits the sale of an individuals’ health information without their permission.
The final rule also reduces burden by streamlining individuals’ ability to authorize the use of their health information for research purposes. The rule makes it easier for parents and others to give permission to share proof of a child’s immunization with a school and gives covered entities and business associates up to one year after the 180-day compliance date to modify contracts to comply with the rule.
The final omnibus rule is based on statutory changes under the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) which clarifies that genetic information is protected under the HIPAA Privacy Rule and prohibits most health plans from using or disclosing genetic information for underwriting purposes.
To view the HIPAA Final Rule, which was published January 25th, visit http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-25/pdf/2013-01073.pdf.
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Monday, 13 February 2012 |
As a result of the federally mandated 5010 transition, the entire EDI industry, including Noridian Administrative Services (NAS), has been getting a significant volume of calls that has made it very difficult for providers to contact NAS- so NAS can work with them to "fix" their issues. During this 5010 transition period the volume of calls to EDI has been averaging approximately 2,700 calls per day. This compares to NAS normal volume of 300 calls per day. EDI provider set up time frame is 3-5 days; however EDI has been in the range of 7-10 days during recent weeks of the 5010 transition.
The transition to 5010 started in April 2011, with a compliance date of January 1, 2012 but will not be enforced until April 1, 2012. The majority of providers chose to start their implementation late in the year. This wait compacted the volume of calls in the past 2 months and has exceeded NAS’ capacity to field calls timely and set up providers in standard time frames. As NAS works through providers' issues, this back log is improving, but it still is not where it needs to be. The EDI department has added 5 experienced EDI staff via a national employment agency to the current call center staff on January 16th. Even though they were experienced staff, it takes ~ 2 weeks to complete orientation and training on NAS EDI specific functions. These staff are now on line and should help to allow providers to access our EDI staff and receive help. Twelve more are set to start within a week.
There is an FISS MSP issue and an issue regarding 5 DRGs that CMS is aware of and is in the process of fixing. Other than that the 5010 transition issues seem to be provider specific. There is no one large issue that could be fixed and take care of the majority of the 5010 issues. Unfortunately, the issues seem to varied and specific to individual providers. NAS will continue to work with providers to ensure they are all transitioned to 5010.
To view latest information on EDI Support Services see http://www.edissweb.com/cgp/index.html.
Source: NAS External Relations.
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Friday, 02 December 2011 |
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) announced this week it will not enforce compliance with the HIPAA 5010 transaction set until March 31, 2012. However, CMS noted, the 90-day delay will not affect the October 2013 implementation date for the ICD-10-CM/PCS coding systems.
CMS did not change the actual implementation date of HIPAA 5010. Providers must still comply with the 5010 transaction standards by January 1, 2012 and small health plans have until January 1, 2013. OESS simply decided it will not take any enforcement actions until March 31, 2012 because most covered entities would not be ready to comply by January 1, 2012. Many covered entities are still waiting for software updates, according to OESS.
However, OESS will still accept complaints related to compliance between January 1 and March 30, 2012. Covered entities will have to provide evidence that they are complying or are making a good faith effort to comply with the new HIPAA standards during the 90-day period if asked by OESS.
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Tuesday, 21 June 2011 |
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently published the HIPAA/HITECH Act Accounting of Disclosures Notice of Proposed Rule. This proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on May 31 and is now on display.
HHS proposes to expand the accounting provision to provide individuals with the right to receive an access report indicating who has accessed electronic protected health information in a designated record set. The Department also proposes changes to the existing accounting requirements to improve their workability and effectiveness.
The comment period is open until July 30, 2011. Please click here to review the 95-page proposed rule. |
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