Bulletin: December 06, 2005

Claims Attachment Proposed Rule Remains Open for Comment

By: Corporate Compliance Officer

The proposed rule, “HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Electronic Health Care Claims Attachments,” had been open for comments until November 22, 2005. That public comment period has now been extended to January 23, 2006. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) considered the highly technical nature of the documents being reviewed, as well as their length, when deciding to extend the comment period.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has made public a letter to Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the Claims Attachment Proposed Rule. The letter, signed by Rick Pollack, Executive Vice President of the AHA, details several concerns the organization has regarding use of claims attachments, beginning with their recommendation that the standard impose specific limitations on its use. Mr. Pollack explains that should requests for attachments become routine, the administrative burden and costs to providers would be unreasonable, and the potential for privacy violations increases. Other recommendations by the AHA include improving the methodology by which a request for additional information is communicated, and adoption of ICD-10 prior to finalizing the rule for claims attachments.

HFMA has published a helpful document, ICD-10: Capturing the Complexities of Health Care, with more information about ICD-10-CM.

Quadax is carefully monitoring the discussions regarding the claims attachments standard. Look for information to come about how claims attachments will be handled within Quadax products and services to bring value and efficiency to our clients.