HIMSS Survey Shows Healthcare Organizations Still Striving to Meet April HIPAA Deadline

A survey conducted in January 2003 showed only 9 percent of healthcare providers and 5 percent of payors were ready to meet the looming April 14, 2003 deadline to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy remediation and the Transactions and Code Sets (TCS) testing deadline. These results were presented in the Winter 2003 U.S. Healthcare Industry Quarterly HIPAA Compliance Survey conducted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Phoenix Health Systems, Inc.

Additional findings include:

• Testing strategies: 42 percent of providers have not decided on their Transactions testing strategies. In addition, only 6 percent of providers and 11 percent of payers have actually completed TCS remediation efforts.
• Compliance focus: Covered organizations are focusing mainly on Privacy and Transactions compliance, with Security compliance a secondary priority because they are waiting on the publication of the final Security Rule.
• Deadline extension: 90 percent of respondents reported they have applied for the Transactions deadline extension of October 2003, but only 37 percent expect to be ready for testing in April 2003. Early reports from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated significantly less than half of all covered entities had applied to date.
• Budgets: HIPAA budgets are generally higher for 2003 than for 2002.

"It's apparent that many healthcare organizations report that compliance is moving ahead, but progress is slow," said D'Arcy Guerin Gue, executive vice president of Phoenix Health Systems. "The challenge remains in changing the overall culture of the organizations to gain acceptance."

Many organizations identified three areas of difficulty related to compliance efforts: regulatory interpretation, budget constraints and unsatisfactory communications with trading partners.

"We know many healthcare organizations feel that they still have much to do to meet the compliance deadline," said Joyce Sensmeier, RN, director of professional services for HIMSS. "In addition to the other compliance challenges identified in the survey, people also are waiting for the final Security Rule, an indication that much remains to be done."

Phoenix Health Systems and HIMSS conducted the Winter 2003 U.S. Healthcare Industry Quarterly HIPAA Compliance Survey during the first half of January 2003. Following e-mail appeals to the more than 13,000 HIMSS individual and corporate members and to the more than 20,000 Phoenix Health Systems HIPAAlert newsletter subscribers, a total of 666 healthcare industry representatives responded. The online survey was completed anonymously via Phoenix's Web site.

HIMSS provides leadership in healthcare for the advancement and management of information technology. Headquartered in Chicago, HIMSS provides services to more than 13,000 members, including healthcare information technology corporations, firms and professionals from around the globe. Through the collaboration of 42 chapters and 19 special interest groups, HIMSS directs and shapes the healthcare industry, encourages emerging technology and promotes public policies that will improve healthcare delivery.

Phoenix Health Systems provides consulting and outsourcing services, exclusively in healthcare information systems, by serving hospitals and other healthcare providers.

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