Federal health plan ID- delaying enforcement

The Department of Health and Human Services is delaying enforcement, until further notice, of health plan enumeration and the unique health plan identifier system, regulations stemming from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that were finalized in the fall of 2012 and set to take effect in the coming years. The agency’s decision comes after an HHS advisory board, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, recommended not requiring a new ID system in administrative transactions. The NAIC’s ID system “is the basis for routing day-to-day administrative transactions from a provider to the appropriate payer, and modifying it would create a significant disruption in the routing and processing of all administrative transactions,” per the NCHVS board. The NAIC’s ID is also used by the CMS for oversight of health insurance exchange plans. The CMS Office of e-Health Standards and Services, the overseer of healthcare standard transactions, code sets, unique identifiers and operating rules, said its new policy of enforcement discretion “will allow HHS to review the NCVHS’s recommendation and consider any appropriate next steps.”