Straight talk: new approaches in health care. HIPAA: deadlines are looming. Are providers prepared?

ABSTRACT

This is the fourth installment in a series of group discussions by top executives on key issues in healthcare today. Modern Healthcare and PricewaterhouseCoopers present Straight Talk. This session tackles the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, and where providers are today in the compliance process and where they need to go. The discussion was held on June 4, 2002 at Modern Healthcare's Chicago headquarters. The moderator was Jeffrey P. Fusile, Healthcare Consulting Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Atlanta. The act protects consumers' health-insurance coverage after job changes. It also mandates significant modifications in the way providers handle the submission of claims and other related transactions and provides protection for the privacy and security of patients' health information. The law requires providers to comply with regulations governing electronic transactions and code sets by October 2003--assuming they file for an extension by October 2002--and privacy regulations by April 2003. The security compliance date has not yet been determined, but it is widely agreed that much of the security rules' requirements will be necessary to honor an organization's privacy commitments in April 2003.