Michael, This is a very generous offer. Why not then, as follow on to your message below, post the HCCO work products here, which I would presume incorporate the insights you reference, so that this WEDi SNIP group can evaluate and determine whether to adopt, adapt or whatever into the next version of official white papers providing guidance to the industry?
As you go on to say below, you feel that the issues you perceived regarding open participation and non-biased outcomes are being remedied. Thus, I would expect that there are no longer any continuing barriers to HCCO and its members providing its work products now to this group for their evaluation. This generous offer could then certainly jump-start and accelerate the development of what I proposed as the WEDi SNIP HIPAA Transaction Conformance White Paper. The duplicate and redundant work effort, which appears to be taking place at HCCO, could then be moved into this WEDi SNIP work group, thus addressing your concern about HCCO SME participants not having the bandwidth to participate in both efforts. I believe this then could be the best of all possible worlds: HCCO's SME members can continue providing their insights, etc. into an industry-developed conformance document; duplicated work effort is minimized/eliminated; the end work product has broad industry input; the end work product then becomes an "official" WEDi document, which gives it an imprimatur not otherwise attainable. Rachel Foerster -----Original Message----- From: Michael DeRoche [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 4:52 PM To: WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List Subject: RE: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules Rachel: The assistance would be in the form of all of the work-products and insights gained by the efforts of many experts over the past months. Not only would it be more time efficient, it would draw from a very diverse group of talent and expertise, potentially resulting in a much better end-product. It is commonly accepted, that in the past, regardless of the best intentions of the leadership, open participation did not translate into open non-biased outcomes. The current WEDI positions on certification, testing recommendations do not follow established norms that are widely embraced in other industries, but are more proprietary and a significant segment of thought was excluded. It appears to me that this situation is currently being remedied. I hope more HCCO members do actively participate in WEDI, but we cannot require or expect the SME's that are working within HCCO to have the bandwidth to do so, but again, we would be remiss not to utilize their talents and contributions via HCCO. Michael Michael DeRoche 602.738.3351 direct 480.946.7200 office 877.825.8309 fax HIPAA Testing, Inc www.hipaatesting.com "Advanced Testing and Certification Solutions" -----Original Message----- From: Rachel Foerster [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 11:43 AM To: WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List Subject: RE: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules I'm a bit puzzled by what "assistance" could be provided. Rather, wouldn't it be more in the spirit of the WEDi SNIP open participation that any HCCO members actively participate and contribute here directly? Rachel Foerster -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 7:55 AM To: WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List Subject: RE: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules Mark, Thanks so much for the offer. We will discuss this as a group and let you know. I really appreciate it. There is a lot to do with just a little time to do it in. :) _______________________________________________ John Lilleston Technical Supervisor Verizon Information Technologies, Inc. Healthcare Solutions 813-979-3225 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.VerizonIT.com/ _______________________________________________ "Mark A Lott" <mark.lott@hipaat To: "WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List" esting.com> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: 11/26/2002 03:47 Subject: RE: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules PM Please respond to "WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List" John, I will take this opportunity to offer HCCO assistance with your initiatives, if you think it will be of any help. We have built a very good cross section of disciplines that may be of use to your workgroup. Our members have subject matter expertise in the following; X12, HL7, ISO, UCC, SEI (Software Engineering Institute), ASQ (American Society for Quality), SQE, (Software Quality Engineering), CMM, Six Sigma, PMI, EDI validation companies, testing tool manufacturers, test automation experts, interoperability testing firms, and certification vendors involved with testing products for companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Lotus, CISCO, Novell, Dell, etc. We have been analyzing these issues for a several months now and while we are busy creating our own programs, we will certainly share our insights and industry best practices with anyone requesting them. Testing, conformance and certification methodologies and processes certainly need greater definition, milestones and benchmarking for it to be successful across the healthcare industry especially in regards to common standards that allow for interoperability of certification solutions across trading partner communities, which is severely lacking in today's marketplace. Regards, Mark A Lott President/CEO HIPAA Testing, Inc. www.hipaatesting.com Executive Co-Chair HCCO - Transactions Group HIPAA Conformance Certification Organization www.hcco.us Office: 480-946-7200 Cell: 480-580-4415 Fax: 877-825-8309 CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 11:21 AM To: WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List Cc: WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List Subject: RE: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules Rachel, I totally agree with you. The work does begin here in these threads. However, it is a very long and tedious process to try to gain some type of consensus once the documenting and discussion begin in the work group calls. I was really just taking the opportunity to get more participation in our group overall...and to try to coax some of the lurkers out of hiding. It was a lame try...but worth a shot. :) _______________________________________________ John Lilleston Technical Supervisor Verizon Information Technologies, Inc. Healthcare Solutions 813-979-3225 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.VerizonIT.com/ _______________________________________________ "Rachel Foerster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List" m.com> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: 11/26/2002 01:10 Subject: RE: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules PM Please respond to "WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List" John, I think that the "official" work of this subworkgroup can also be accomplished and progressed via this list serve. Why not begin the work items you identify below here, now? If you and Sue have identified about 50 work items, why not start a discussion thread on each of them? Your message below seems to indicate that it will take place only during the regular biweekly conference calls. Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate on 12/5. I suspect this is true for many contributors here on this list who can and could contribute via discussion threads but may not be able to participate on conference calls. Rachel Foerster -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 11:18 AM To: WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List Subject: Re: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules Everyone here has raised some very valid points. Right now I think Sue and I could list about 50 possible agenda items for our bi-weekly meetings based on these listserve discussions. It is during those meetings that a lot of what is said here turns into reality and into deliverables. To be blunt...we need HELP from each of you in making these ideas into reality. I would guesstimate that currently there are 6-10 people who are constantly part of our calls, who constantly volunteer to assist us, and who constantly take on 90% of the work. I certainly would like to applaud those people and sincerely thank them for their help. Sue and I tried to recognize a few of those people during our breakout session in Phoenix. I sincerely want to invite each of you and your great ideas into our workgroup as a ACTIVE participant. Although our agenda for our next meeting (December 5th at 11 a.m. eastern time) is pretty much already full, we would like to take these ideas further in future meetings. We need your help and opinions in prioritizing some of the items we have ahead of us and in getting them discussed, documented, and reaching a consensus on an approach and methodology. Please feel free to continue your discussions here but also please try to take a few hours out of your week and help this group out in more than just theory. Most of us are either knee deep in or rapidly approaching the testing phase of our HIPAA TCS implementation. I think that this group is going to have a lot of attention centered on it in the next 4-6 months. Please join us on our conference calls every other Thursday at 11 a.m. eastern time. The next call is December 5...and so on. The call in number is 703-736-7290 pc 1315339. _______________________________________________ John Lilleston Technical Supervisor Verizon Information Technologies, Inc. Healthcare Solutions 813-979-3225 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.VerizonIT.com/ _______________________________________________ "Rachel Foerster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List" m.com> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: 11/26/2002 11:04 Subject: HIPAA Certification & Conformance Rules AM Please respond to "WEDI SNIP Testing Subworkgroup List" These are precisely the issues that need to be debated, argued, and agreement reached here on what constitutes "certification." Thus, I believe that this group can provide immense value to the industry by not only defining "certification" but then providing the criteria on which "certification" will be based. This certification criteria then becomes the "conformance" rules that are openly developed by the industry for the industry and then which any vendor can provide services. Right now it's the wild wild west with each vendor offering "certification" but with no set of rules that the industry can use to evaluate the claims. I applaud Kepa for disclosing in such detail what Claredi's rules are. How about other vendors also disclosing the rules they use - beyond just saying "compliance against the IG" so that we can then normalize these rules, document them and make them available to the industry. So, for starters, let's change the subject line. How's this for a starting vision: (which, quite frankly, I adapted from the ASC X12 Compliance with X12 report) "Compliance with the HIPAA electronic transaction technical specifications as set forth in the implementation guides will constitute the basis for deciding conformance with the HIPAA standards for three functional levels of semantics, syntax & interchange in terms of a business perspective and a standards perspective." I know some might say that we already know this, and while this may be true to a point, we must now develop conformance metrics against which any consumer can measure the product, solution, or services under consideration. >From a Standards Perspective Compliance with X12 means conformance with the rules, i.e., . . . to be in agreement with the rules X12 provides the rules. The Current term: conformance/conformity: To meet the requirements of a standard or specification Conformance testing is intended to verify compliance Why Conformance is important: 80% of problems in an open system occur due to non-compliant products and resulting interoperability issues Interoperability includes conformance . . . and more: Conformity to the standard Software vendors collaborating by agreeing to work together HIPAA critical success factors: Conformity to: Base X12 standards HIPAA Implementation Guide specifications Trading partner-specific specifications to achieve successful internal application requirements Our Challenges: Standards are not enough to ensure interoperability. Standards are only meaningful if implemented in a consistent way. There is a need to ensure that implementations adhere to the standard: What is expected of implementations in order to claim conformance ? i.e., what are the requirements? How will we know if an implementation conforms? test suites, test tools - Different ideas of what conformance is . . . Past experience may have affected view of conformance Now, if you've stayed with me this far, I propose that rather than arguing about testing versus certification, that this group initiate an effort with the goal of developing a Conformance with HIPAA Electronic Transactions Implementation Guides document. The ASC X12 Compliance document (which by the way, was developed in the early 1990's) could be a very useful template. Rachel Foerster --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-testing as: [email protected] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org
