IFR for HIPAA EFT Standard to be Published in Federal Register January 10, 2012

HIPAA.com discussed in its preceding posting this Interim Final Rule (IFR) for “adoption of standards and operating rules for Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) and operating rules for remittance advice…”, as required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-148).  [124 STAT. 153] The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its regulatory review on January 3, 2012, and the IFR is available for pre-publication review prior to January 10, 2012, when it will be published in the Federal Register.  The title of the IFR is: Administrative Simplification:  Adoption of Standards for Health Care Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs) and Remittance Advice.

The Summary in the pre-publication version states:  “This interim final rule with comment period implements parts of section 1104 of the Affordable Care Act which requires adoption of a standard for electronic funds transfers (EFT).  It defines EFT and explains how the adopted standards support and facilitate health care EFT transmissions.”  These standards relate to Administrative Simplification transactions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

Comments must be received by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) within 60 days of the publication date of the IFR, with instructions for submitting comments included in the front material of the IFR.  The compliance date for the IFR is January 1, 2014.