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New HHS rule will require national standard for health plan identifiers
The Department of Health and Human Services announced a rule establishing a national standard for unique health plan identifiers in an effort to simplify health care transactions, according to a press release.
The health plan identifier (HPID) rule is intended to streamline the billing process for care transactions, and is projected to save the health care industry between $1.3 billion and $6 billion over the next 10 years. Health plans currently use different identifiers with different formatting and length that can lead to misidentification of insurance or difficulty in determining a patient’s eligibility for treatment, according to the release.
HPIDs will be required by larger health plans within 2 years of the effective date, in 2014, while smaller plans must have HPIDs within 3 years, in 2015. The rule also includes an “other entity” identifier (OEID), which will pertain to entities other than health care providers, individuals and health plans that require identification in transactions.
“These new standards are a part of our efforts to help providers and health plans spend less time filling out paperwork and more time seeing their patients,” Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in the release.
The HHS also finalized a proposed delay of the compliance date for the use of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition (ICD-10) diagnosis and procedure codes, from Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 1, 2014.
The rule is the fourth regulation issued by the HHS in compliance with an administrative simplification provision within the Affordable Care Act.