A place to report HIPAA problems: AMA form gives doctors an outlet

The AMA's HIPAA complaint form is the best tool doctors have to let organized medicine, and CMS, know what's going wrong with the new transaction and code set standards.

Editorial. Jan. 5, 2004.

If HIPAA is causing you pain, there's a place to complain. That place, on the AMA's Web site, is labeled -- logically enough -- the HIPAA Complaint Form. It's easy to fill out, and it's anonymous. You can explain any problem you're running into now that the Oct. 16 deadline has passed for submitting HIPAA-compliant claims electronically. The site went up as soon as that deadline hit, even though the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave physicians an extension to get their claims compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The CMS has its own complaint form, but it's not expecting a stampede of angry physicians. The form is hard to find on the agency's site, and it requires you to give your name in case CMS needs to follow up with an investigation. You also have to register online with an e-mail address.

So CMS is relying heavily on the AMA -- and the more than 30 county, state and specialty societies that link to the AMA's form -- to supply it with information about where HIPAA troubles lie. AMA staff already have met with CMS to discuss the form and share the early findings.

By filling out the complaint form, physicians can give the AMA and CMS valuable information to pinpoint the sources of HIPAA-related problems. What each is looking for in particular is patterns -- whether complaints are coming from a certain geographic area, or whether they're being directed against a certain entity.