Jan. 1, 2012, may seem like it’s a long way off, but there’s a lot to be done before the new HIPAA 5010 electronic transaction standards take effect on that date.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) advises health care providers to complete internal testing of the new standards by Dec. 31, 2010—just four months away. Testing with external partners should begin Jan. 1, 2011.
Analysis, development, testing, and rollout will take the entire nearly three-year window allowed by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (NCHICA) and Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI).
The two nonprofits have developed an implementation timeline for the new electronic transaction standards, as well as a timeline for implementation of the new ICD-10 codes, which take effect Oct. 1, 2013.
CMS also offers an overview of HIPAA 5010 implementation.