HIPAA transaction codes compliance deadline extended

     Congress has passed the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act which will extend, by one year, the deadline for compliance by health-care providers with transaction standards of HIPAA.

     Administrative Simplification Compliance Act Information:

- Practices conducting HIPAA transactions electronically, and wish to claim an extension, have until Oct. 16, 2003 to bring the practice into compliance with HIPAA regulations dealing with the transaction standards.

-Benefits are only extended to the parties that complete forms, to be created by the Department of Health and Human Services, which explain why you can't comply by Oct. 16, 2002 with the transactions section of the HIPAA regulations, and practice into compliance.

-Deadline extensions apply only to the transaction standards, and does not apply to the privacy standards.

-If you conduct HIPAA transactions electronically, and are not in compliance with the transactions standards by Oct. 16, 2002, and have not filed the appropriate paperwork for an extension, you may be excluded from the Medicare program as a provider.