HIPAA:  Employer Identifier Number to be used in transactions

     The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced the use of a Employer Identification Number (EIN) as the standard unique identifier for employers in the filing and processing of health care claims and other transactions. Mandated by the HIPAA in 1996, the EIN should help to eliminate paperwork, simplify activities such as enrollment in health plans and payment of health insurance premiums.

     EIN numbers will be used in certain transactions in the Department of Health and Human Services to which HIPAA standards have been adopted.  For example, the EIN would be used to enroll an employee in a health plan.  Health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers that conduct standard electronic transactions will be required to use the EIN if the employer needs to be identified in the transaction. 

     The ENI will be issued and maintained by the Internal Revenue Service.  Businesses that pay wages to employees already have EINs.  The final rule establishing the EIN as a standard identifier will be published in the Federal Register on May 31st with the effective date of the final rule being July 30, 2002.

For more information on this topic visit the CMS Web site at www.cms.gov/hipaa/.