CMS has designated June 15 as National Testing Day to ensure your practice will be HIPAA 5010 compliant come January 2012.
The decision came as a response to the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from October 2010.
“Designating a national testing period in advance of the compliance date will focus the industry’s attention to prepare internal systems for the move to Version 5010 and begin testing electronic transactions with trading partners,” MGMA wrote in its letter.
Remember: You should be working now to adopt HIPAA 5010 electronic transaction standards such as claims, insurance eligibility verification and remittance advice, to meet the Jan. 1, 2012 deadline and avoid your claims being denied. To prepare you should be conducting internal and external testing with practice management system software vendors, clearinghouses and health plans, MGMA said in its news release Wednesday.
A previous MGMA survey, published March 30, indicated that many providers (25%) not knowing what needed to be done with their software to comply with HIPAA 5010, which worried experts that many practices would be unprepared in time for the January deadline. And only about half indicated that they discussed the necessary software updates with their practice management software vendor (PBN 04/25/11).
CMS and MGMA hope to increase confidence among practices, using National 5010 Testing Day as a launch pad for practices to work with vendors, health plans and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) and get real-time advice to work out any potential hiccups before full implementation. TIP: Contact your local MAC for more details concerning transactions to be tested soon.