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On August 21, 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known
as HIPAA, was signed into law. HIPAA impacts all areas of the health care industry
and is designed to provide insurance portability, to improve the efficiency of health
care by standardizing the exchange of administrative and financial data, and to
protect the privacy, confidentiality and security of health care data. The various
provisions of HIPAA are enforced via rules promulgated by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services ("HHS").
Currently, HHS has issued final rules with respect to transaction and code standards
and health care data privacy procedures. HHS has also issued a proposed rule addressing
technical and procedural security standards whose purpose is to protect patient
health care information.
In general, the HIPAA regulations apply to health care providers, health insurance
companies, and health care data clearinghouses as well as certain business associates
of such covered entities. BMS understands that the HIPAA regulations mandate that
some customers (who are covered entities) must obtain certain contractual assurances
from BMS related to the protection and maintenance of protected health information
under HIPAA. BMS appreciates the challenges that HIPAA will impose on our customers
and we stand ready to meet our HIPAA requirements.
The HIPAA regulations regarding standards for electronic transactions and code sets
(the “Transaction Rule”) were effective October 16, 2000, and most covered
entities must comply by October 16, 2002. Although an extension is permitted and
has been submitted, BMS will continue in its efforts for compliance by October 16,
2002. Today, BMS accepts several non-HIPAA-standard formats including NSF and other
proprietary formats. The BMS platform translates these inbound transactions into
the format acceptable at the destination health care payer. As a health care data
clearinghouse, HIPAA allows BMS to continue our service of offering translation
services to convert inbound non-standard transactions to the HIPAA standard ANSI
X12N format and the subsequent conversion and delivery of such transactions to health
care payers in a non-standard format. For submitters that choose not to submit ANSI
X12N transactions, we will continue to accept existing BMS proprietary formats and
translate them into the HIPAA complaint ANSI X12N format.
Additional Information
For more information regarding BMS's HIPAA Readiness, please contact our Customer
Care Center by phone (866-535-6760), email bmshelp@BMSemail.com,
or postal mail:
BMS Medical Management, Inc.
Attn: Customer Care Center
2058 Mills Avenue
PMB 210
Claremont,
CA 91711
Last Updated October 2004
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