In an attempt to streamline providers’ workflows, boost cost-effectiveness and improve patients’ care journey, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), introduced on Dec. 19 a rule proposal entitled “Adoption of Standards for Health Care Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures, and Modification to Referral Certification and Authorization Transaction Standard (CMS-0053-P).”
The rule, if finalized, would establish standards for electronic signatures used in transactions involving medical charts, X-rays and provider notes, according to a news release. It would also modify transactions consummated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and according to an estimate by the CMS, save $454 million a year in administrative costs.
As CMS administrator Chiquita Brooks LaSure said in the release:
The proposed rule further aims to streamline the healthcare-claim process by “providing structured, standardized electronic data to payers.” Additionally, it “proposes to adopt a modification to the standard for the referral certification and authorization transaction, thereby reducing potential barriers to adopting value-based payments,” which, again, will reduce administrative costs and burdens on providers.
The issue of standardizing electronic transactions has been one that has been under consideration since HIPAA was enacted by Congress, in 1996 – specifically, another CMS release said, through a codicil that called for “Administrative Simplification.” And indeed, there were attempts, in 1998 and 2005, to standardize electronic signatures. In 1998, stakeholders did not believe such technology had reached maturity, and in 2005 they could not reach a consensus on how best to use that which was available.
The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, includes a requirement that the Secretary of Health & Human Services adopt standards for healthcare claim attachments.
The rule can be reviewed here, and according to the release, the CMS welcomes comments from all interested parties, particularly “patients and their families, providers, clinicians, consumer advocates, health plans, and health care professional associations.” The deadline for doing so is March 22, 2023.
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