Earl, you're confusing the stated purpose of the legislation versus the realization of the stated purpose. The issue, if I recall the comment correctly, was the intent for economic benefits rather than the realization of the intent - two totally different things. How many companies in private industry perform periodic benefit analysis to determine if in fact the resources spent on various electronic commerce projects actually realize the goals most likely set forth in the original capital appropriation request or project plan? My personal - but very casual - observation is that most e-commerce projects do not achieve their originally stated (and quite often grandiose) goals, and that in reality, the organization doesn't truly want to document the results, since if the actual results were made known, heads would probably roll. Furthermore, the article you point to is quite biased and not at all discussing the electronic transactions portion of the HIPAA Administrative Simplification statue. Rather, it's a slanted commentary on the privacy regulations and the author clearly indicates his/her lack of real understanding of the privacy regulation. Rachel Rachel Foerster & Associates, Ltd. 39432 North Avenue Beach Park, IL 60099 Voice: 847-872-8070 Fax: 847-589-8081
_____ From: Earl Wertheimer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 9:20 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [EDI-L] <ADVOCACY> Why I Don't Like XML Rachel > Au contraire re the economic benefits not being a consideration for the > HIPAA legislation! The key portion of that HIPAA legislation is > administrative simplification with the stated legislative purpose: > > "Subtitle F-Administrative Simplification > SEC. 261. PURPOSE. > It is the purpose of this subtitle to improve the Medicare program under > title XVIII of the Social Security Act, the medicaid program under title XIX of > such Act, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system, by > encouraging the development of a health information system through the > establishment of standards and requirements for the electronic transmission of > certain health information." > > In my book, efficiency relates to cost reductions and process improvements. > Doesn't that translate big time into economic benefits? No. Not if the government is behind it. ;-) I find it difficult to believe that a government mandated standard is actually able to achieve it's stated goals. Has HIPAA actually improved the Medicare program? http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/000430.html Private industry doesn't need laws to change their processes. They do what is more efficient, automatically. Earl Wertheimer [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.spe-edi.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
