The Regs Are Published!

The Final Rules for HIPAA 2 - X12/NCPDP upgrades, and ICD-10 were published in the Federal Register today!

I will review the rules this weekend and post a more complete analysis, but the key points:

X12 5010/ NCPDP Compliance Date - Jan 1, 2012, but folks can begin using the transactions in production as early as March 17 of this year and still be considered in compliance. This means we have about 3 years to get into compliance. Not bad.

ICD-10 Compliance Date - Services on and after Oct 1, 2013. Approximately 4.5 years to compliance. Longer than originally proposed, longer than AHIMA suggested, but shorter than others suggested. This is going to a bear to implement, and we really need to get it right.


I will be interested in seeing the CMS rationale for their final decisions. Kudos to them for getting the rule published, and agreeing with most industry comment on the transaction version upgrades. The jury is still out on ICD-10.

ICD-10