HHS proposes to rescind two administrative simplification standards

The Department of Health and Human Services today issued a proposed rule that would rescind the standard unique health plan identifier (HPID) and other entity identifier (OEID), as recommended by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. The agency delayed enforcement of a 2012 final rule implementing the two administrative simplification standards in 2014 to consider the recommendation. Based on extensive input from the field, HHS said the identifiers do not add value to electronic health care transactions and would be “costly, complicated and burdensome” to implement, noting that the field already has satisfactory mechanisms to route claims and other HIPAA transactions using the existing payer IDs. The agency will accept comments on the proposed rule for 60 days after its publication in tomorrow’s Federal Register.