Health plans worried about the costs involved in switching to the ANSI X12 version of HIPAA 5010 compliance services now have a new testing tool at their disposal.
RelayHealth, the connectivity subsidiary of Atlanta-based McKesson, has announced the availability of its TestTrack5010 solution to payers. The Web-based tool allows health plans to test the processing of HIPAA 5010 medical claims, eligibility and other transactions using their own production data.
The federal government has set a Jan. 1, 2012 deadline for all healthcare payers and their trading partners - including providers - to switch over to the more complex ANSI X12 version 5010 transaction set to send and receive administrative claims and other data. Officials say the new electronic transaction set will improve the processing of sensitive medical and financial data, as well as enhance security.
Some experts have estimated that the health plan industry could spend upwards of $7.7 billion implementing and testing the new technology to meet federal guidelines.
RelayHealth officials say the TestTrack5010 service will help health plans reduce by 75 percent the amount of time and effort needed to bring them into compliance with the new regulations.
“The introduction of TestTrack5010 demonstrates RelayHealth's ongoing leadership role in helping the healthcare community make the challenging transition to the new transaction standards, as well as the even more demanding switch to ICD-10 diagnostic coding that will follow,” said Jim Bodenbender, president of RelayHealth's provider and consumer solutions division. “By providing this service, we can help payers efficiently achieve 5010 compliance which, in turn, will ensure they are able to sustain their service levels for their submitting providers.”
According to the company, the solutions allows payers to perform gap analyses by comparing their 4010 transaction content with 5010 requirements, convert 4010 files to 5010-compliant transactions, create benefit-specific test scenarios and review the details of selected items in batched claims.