HIPAA 5010 Definition

HIPAA 5010 can be understood as an upgrade on the existing form of HIPAA rather than a significant change in the way HIPAA-defined benchmarks have been defined for processing transactions in the healthcare industry. The changes put forth as a part of HIPAA 5010 were being anticipated for some time since the existing standards of HIPAA were beginning to seem a bit outdated. HIPAA 5010 has been created in such manner that the forthcoming changes in the revised medical billing/coding data of ICD-10-CM & ICD-10-PCS will be accommodated by all covered entities in a better manner. These changes in the coding systems are scheduled to be made effective from October 1, 2013 and thus, adoption of HIPAA 5010 will mean that all covered entities and their business associates have sufficient time and proper understanding of the altered coding systems. However, this doesn't mean that HIPAA 5010 doesn't present any challenges to the US healthcare industry.

For starters, the there are some major differences between HIPAA 5010 Rule - http://www.edocscan.com/hipaa-5010 - and the existing, HIPAA 4010A1 standards. As a result, the entire process of upgrading to HIPAA 5010 could be a bit time consuming. However, this slight deterrent is largely negated by the fact that the adoption of HIPAA 5010 will improve the quality of transactions in many ways. The most notable advantages would be the removal of ambiguities in the existing healthcare information processing systems, ensuring more consistency in healthcare transactions. This will also help to graduate towards adopting NPI regulations in a more comprehensive manner and easier elimination of patient data that has no relevance. Covered entities or business entities in the US healthcare industry shouldn't feel threatened by the introduction of HIPAA 5010 since it doesn't put forth a financial stress on their operations. These entities merely need to review their existing systems and that of their business partners and understand how HIPAA 5010-defined standards can be adopted, i.e. ensuring HIPAA 5010 compliance in the most undemanding manner is possible.