HHS seeks comments on potential changes to HPID rule

The Department of Health and Human Services today issued a notice seeking comments on potential changes to its administrative simplification rule for health plan identifiers (HPIDs). The notice will be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register with comments accepted for 60 days. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last year delayed enforcement of its requirements related to HPID enumeration and use in order to review recommendations by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. The committee has asked CMS to clarify the identifier’s use and specify that the HPID not be used in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act transactions. At NCVHS hearings on the issue, health care providers testified that health plan identifiers and optional other entity identifiers (OPIDs) should not be used in HIPAA electronic transactions. The HPID final rule does not require HIPAA-covered entities to identify a health plan in a HIPAA transaction, but requires transactions that do to use an HPID beginning Nov. 7, 2016.