RE: clearinghouse/provider relationship

[Catherine Lohmeier]

I always find myself looking to the intent of what HIPAA is trying to accomplish.   The intent is a set of standards for information passing electronically between entities involved in the healthcare industry.  EDI has proven very cost effective in other industries, and it will in healthcare as well.  But there are some growing pains involved and that also has happened in every other industry.   We all agree that HIPAA put a mandatory responsibility of having the capability to send and receive all the HIPAA standard transactions on the payer and gave providers the option of choosing which ones they want to use.   We all agree that if a payer provides a direct or indirect (clearinghouse) means for providers to send and receive their transactions without a premium attached then that is following the letter of the rule.  But for a payer to say, “I did my part. Now, providers, the rest is up to you”, is not following the intent of the rule, in my humble opinion.   That’s like a bank saying, “OK, I have an electronic funds and bill paying network setup, but you the customer have to figure out your own way to access it.  What ever costs you incur figuring it out is on you.”  I know it’s an exaggerated example but I’m trying to make a point.   HIPAA does not prohibit a payer from having as many direct AND indirect methods as they want for getting transactions into and out of their systems.  It seems to me the easier a payer makes this for the provider or the agent of the provider (clearinghouse), the more the provider will use it, and isn’t that the intent?  Getting rid of this endless stream of inefficient paper, retyping, scanning?  Historically, offering better customer service and reliability makes a business more competitive in the marketplace.   Payers are businesses just like a bank, or a retail store or an architectural firm, and they must do their own cost benefit business analysis to decide how much to offer their clients-the members and the provider community.  The choices they make may differentiate them in the healthcare marketplace of the future.   Again, this is just my own personal opinion.     Catherine Lohmeier Implementations Project Lead OD Professional™ Team   --- 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-transactions 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