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According to a recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) 45.2 percent of responding physician practices said they had not started HIPAA 5010 implementation.
This would put them behind in the CMS endorsed timeline.
And it's not just practices. Vendors and payers are behind. Why?
Robert Tennant, an advisor for the MGMA, has a couple explanations of why so many practices are behind on HIPAA 5010 implementation. He told Physicians Practice that:
- Everyone thinks since 4010 deadlines were moved, 5010 deadlines will migrate also.
- Practices are paying about $16,000 per physician for HIPAA 5010 upgrades to their systems.
Ken Bradley, vice president of strategic planning at Navicure, is deep into HIPAA 5010 implementation. He has a couple more ideas why practices are dragging their feet:
- There is a lot of distraction for practices now. Other mandates like meaningful use and ICD-10 are commanding a lot of resources.
- Practices are relying on their clearinghouses to convert the 4010 data to 5010 transactions. They're saying, "My clearinghouse will take care of that."
And Navicure is one of those clearinghouses. Which sounds like a great service. But there's a downside according to Bradley.
"Short term that might provide a practice with a little more leeway in terms when they want to do their update," said Bradley. But sooner or later, practices need to upgrade. "There are some new ideas in 5010... and to take advantage they're going to have to update their software. "
"If their current software isn't taking advantage of that, they're going to miss out on the opportunity to potentially improve their revenue," said Bradley.
Plus payers may start requiring information that practices didn't need to provide under 4010.
If practices are still planning to make the Jan. 1 deadline, they need to be in the testing stage. Because Bradley says the longer they wait, the more practices will be trying to test their 5010 systems. That means less time to give you if you're one of the too many procrastinators.
Hopefully that won't be an incentive for practices to blow off the deadline. If too many wait for their payers to have more time for them, that day may never come.
