Michael, The good news is that the HIPAA attachments, with BIN segment and all, only include 7-bit data and all of it is printable. No control characters either.
The magic is done by MIME-encoding any images (jpeg, tiff, pdf) before sending them inside the BIN, and the MIME-encoding gives you the base64 encoding you need to avoid non-printable characters. So, even with the HIPAA attachments there is no "binary" data being sent in the BIN, only "text". Kepa Zubeldia Claredi On Wednesday 23 March 2005 08:59 am, Michael Mattias wrote: > > > Michael, just wait until healthcare gets going with the proposed electronic > > claims attachments!!! This will be a 275 transaction set, with the BIN > > segment into which an HL7 XML-based message containing either structured > > data, images, text files, etc. is poured. There are even some who believe > > that this will be a fairly easy adoption since health care providers and > > payers are already using X12!!!! > > Well, that's exactly what I was looking at. As you know I develop and market software for "healthcare EDI" and with this attachment > thing coming down the pike I thought about creating something to handle this. (You know, automatically extract the attachments or > print them out or create an API for the billing/practice management software developers or something like that). > > But when I stepped back from the tree to look at the forest, this 'high-order ASCII character thing' hit me... > > Even though communications is no longer the black art it once was (when just making a connection required one priest, six acolytes > and the live sacrifice of five goats and one virgin), I cannot help but see that 'smoothly' embedding and extracting binary data > into/from ANSI ASC X12 data amd moving it from Point A to Point B will be a challenge(?) for a lot of providers, service bureaus and > others. > > (Yes, I know it's not technically difficult - in the abstract. But I work mostly with smaller firms who cannot afford a full time > "Computer Communications Department"). > > I guess I'll just have to stick this in my navel and contemplate a bit further..... > > Michael Mattias > Tal Systems, Inc. > Racine WI > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > . > 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 > > > > > > > > -- This email contains confidential information intended only for the named addressee(s). Any use, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person is strictly prohibited. . 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/
