CMS Urges State Medicaid Officials to Move Ahead with HIPAA Compliance Efforts Despite Deadline Delay
In a recent letter, CMS officials urged state Medicaid administrators to maintain momentum on efforts to comply with HIPAA transactions standards, despite recent legislation that delays the deadline for compliance by one year. CMS warned states that they might be unable to meet the new October 2003 deadline if compliance efforts are "stopped or severely curtailed." The letter states that HIPAA implementation "does not lend itself to being stopped and then restarted later without serious project compromises, inefficiencies and cost increases" (Today in Health Law, 3/12). President Bush signed legislation in December that postponed the deadline for compliance with HIPAA administrative simplification provisions by one year from October 2002 (California Healthline, 1/4).
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