Doctors take note: HIPAA extensions due by Oct. 15

Many physicians are not aware of the transaction standards requirements.

By Markian Hawryluk, AMNews staff. Sept. 9, 2002.

Washington -- Government officials are longing for the good old days of Y2K alarm, when deadlines struck fear in the hearts of health care groups. At the least, they would like a little respect for the looming Oct. 15 deadline on electronic health transaction standards established by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

"With Y2K, there was this generally accepted fear that if I didn't do something by a certain date, the world would be impacted," said Ruben King-Shaw, deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "You don't have quite that sense of alarm [on HIPAA], which is unfortunate."

It's not that CMS expects health practitioners to be compliant by that date. Even the agency has made the decision not to comply with the standards released in 2000 until the final modifications are announced. But few entities have filed for the one-year extension that is virtually there for the asking. In late August, with slightly more than two months before the compliance deadline, only 3% of entities subject to the new standards -- including physician practices -- had filed for the extension.

"The small ones are just not focused on it," King-Shaw said. "Whether you're small urban or you're small rural, you don't have a big staff, you don't have consultants. And if it does come in, it takes a backseat to patient care, the sort of thing you'd expect to come first."

King-Shaw said the process of filing for the extension requires some thought about how the practice will meet the standards in 2003. He's concerned that many physicians aren't considering those issues and even more concerned that some are hoping the problem will just go away. [...]