Low response for HIPAA extension worries CMS -- October 2002 -- FP Report

October 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 10

Low response for HIPAA extension worries CMS

BY SHERI PORTER

Helpful HIPAA resources available

If you still need more information about any portion of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, check out these resources.

Call the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services HIPAA hotline at (410) 786-4232 to ask questions and discuss your concerns with a CMS staffer. Be patient -- the hotline is popular.
E-mail your questions to askhipaa@cms.hhs.gov and get an answer directly from CMS personnel assigned to do nothing but field and respond to e-mails.
Go to the Academy's HIPAA homepage at http://www.aafp.org/hipaa.xml and find answers to many HIPAA questions.

Medicare officials are holding their breath as the nation's physicians continue to drag their collective feet about filing for extensions for one portion of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The simple act of completing and submitting the two-page form by Oct. 15 extends the compliance deadline for the transactions and code sets standards portion of HIPAA one full year.

"We're estimating that less than 10 percent of providers who may need the extension have applied for it," says Karen Trudel, director of HIPAA outreach at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Trudel says CMS officials believe some physicians are procrastinating, just as taxpayers avoid the April 15 tax deadline. But other factors are at play, says Trudel. A number of physicians have expressed concern that they might be penalized if the estimates they give CMS now were to change in the future. "Providers think the information has to be absolutely perfect, and so they are waiting," says Trudel. "In reality, the information they provide on this form was always intended to be a snapshot in time."

Even more disturbing to CMS is a growing realization that some physicians are completely out of the HIPAA loop. "Our focus groups have shown that the small rural providers' awareness about HIPAA in general is pretty low," says Trudel.

To deal with the information drought, says Trudel, CMS has embarked on a nationwide educational blitz, with three target messages:

HIPAA is really important to you.
File for your extension as soon as you can.
CMS can help by directing you to resources (see box at right).

David C. Kibbe, M.D., director of health information technology in the AAFP Socioeconomics Division, encourages physicians to act before the deadline passes. "Filing for the extension with CMS is the first step on the pathway to surviving HIPAA transactions standards," says Kibbe. "It's easy, it costs nothing and there are no wrong answers." In the long run, completing this form could save a physician's practice thousands of dollars in lost Medicare reimbursement, says Kibbe, because if physicians aren't HIPAA compliant, they won't be able to send electronic claims to Medicare, and "Medicare won't be accepting paper claims after Oct. 16, 2003 ... period!"

If you have any concerns that on Oct. 16, 2002 -- the date the standards take effect -- your practice will not be fully compliant, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2/ascaform.asp today and follow the instructions to submit the Electronic Health Care Transactions and Code Sets Standards "Model Compliance Plan" online. When you hit the "submit" button and a confirmation message appears on the screen, breathe easy. Your extension is a done deal.

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