July 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 7 |
Worried about bringing your practice into compliance with the transactions and code sets standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act by the Oct. 16 deadline? You can extend the deadline for a full year, until Oct. 16, 2003. (The deadline for complying with the HIPAA privacy regulations remains April 14, 2003.)
To receive the automatic extension, just submit a form outlining your compliance plan to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. For more details on filing for an extension and a copy of the form, go to the online version of the May Family Practice Management at http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20020500/52hipa.html and read "HIPAA Compliance: How to Get an Extension," written by David Kibbe, M.D., director of health information technology in the AAFP Socioeconomics Division.
You also can submit your information to CMS using the agency's Web-based form at http://www.cms.gov/hipaa/hipaa2/ascaform.asp -- or you can devise your own format, making sure that the document contains equivalent information. Extension requests must be received electronically or be postmarked by Oct. 15.
FP Report is published by the
AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.