Since most of the DTP date fields are constrained to contain only CCYYMMDD formatted dates (qualifier D8), it stands to reason that the "HIPAA maximum" is indeed 8 characters, as Hope Furtado has discovered. A compliant HIPAA transaction set would never have anything other than an 8 character date field in this usual case - so there's certainly no need to account for the maximum 35 characters allowed by the underlying X12 standard.
There are a few exceptions involving drug supplies involving date ranges (qualifier RD8 - Range of Dates Expressed in Format CCYYMMDD-CCYYMMDD), which obviously requires two 8-character fields to hold the start and end dates (you wouldn't bother saving the dash!). William J. Kammerer Novannet, LLC. +1 (614) 487-0320 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel Foerster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 15 February, 2002 11:36 AM Subject: RE: DTP Date Field Length Data element #1251 used in the DTP segment is specified by the X12 standards to be an alphanumeric datatype with a minimum/maximum number of characters of 1/35. HIPAA does not specific a different maximum number of characters, and especially the HIPAA guides do not specific a greater number of maximum characters than allowed by the underlying X12 standard. Rachel Foerster Principal Rachel Foerster & Associates, Ltd. Professionals in EDI & Electronic Commerce 39432 North Avenue Beach Park, IL 60099 Phone: 847-872-8070 Fax: 847-872-6860 http:/www.rfa-edi.com -----Original Message----- From: Hope Furtado [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 7:45 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; Hope Furtado Subject: RE: DTP Date Field Length Donna, Many of our clients, that are health plans, have made the decision to keep their field lengths equal to the HIPAA maximum length for codes of "D8" and "RD8". When you account for all the possible loops and segment repeat information for the HIPAA transactions, keeping the Date field lengths to the HIPAA maximum, instead of the X12 maximum saves a significant amount of space. I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Hope Furtado Corporate Information Architect TM Floyd & Company (800)780-1170 extension 129 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: Hayward, Donna M B230 [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 7:26 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: DTP Date Field Length > > > In the 837 Implementation Guide(s) all dates are in a 35 byte DTP03 field > format. There are only two qualifiers available for use, 'D8' - date > expressed in CCYYMMDD format or 'RD8' - date range expressed in CCYYMMDD > - > CCYYMMDD format. We have expanded every date field on our internal common > claim record to support the maximum field length of 35 bytes however, we > question how / when all 35 bytes would ever be populated. > > Any idea? Thanks. > > Donna M. Hayward > A CIGNA HealthCare - EDI GATEWAY HIPAA Project Manager > * Bloomfield: 860.226.3134 Ntwk: 572-3134 Fax: 860.226.7573 > * e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ********************************************************************** To be removed from this list, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that it may take up to 72 hours to process your request.
