Baltimore

Tuesday, Oct. 15, was the final day that health care providers could file for an extension of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance deadline.

As tens of thousands of providers scrambled to meet the extension deadline, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced its enforcement arsenal. Effective last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will enforce the insurance portability provisions of the Act, ensuring that all code sets and provider identifiers are secure for use during electronic health care transactions.

Ruben King-Shaw, CMS' deputy administrator and chief operating officer, will oversee the agency's enforcement efforts and will create a new HIPAA office. In addition to its enforcement responsibilities, the new office will develop outreach programs designed to help providers comply with HIPAA's regulations.

Unlike the aggressive enforcement tactics the federal government uses to combat health care fraud, the HIPAA enforcement tactics will rely on voluntary compliance and the investigation of complaints, HHS explained. “The process will be primarily complaint-driven and will consist of progressive steps that will provide opportunities to demonstrate compliance or submit a corrective action plan.”

The HHS Office for Civil Rights will enforce the privacy-related provisions of HIPAA, using the same approach.

Also last month, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers study revealed that HIPAA is the No. 1 concern among health care compliance officers nationwide. Based on responses from 700 randomly selected compliance officers, PwC reported that 68 percent of U.S. compliance officers think HIPAA is the single biggest issue facing their organizations today. These respondents were more concerned about HIPAA than about monitoring and auditing, documentation, education and training, or developing a compliance program, the report concluded.

For breaking news, go to www.homecaremonday.com, the electronic news service of the home medical equipment industry.