HIPAA compliance may seem overwhelming to some physicians. CMA leaders and practice specialists, however, believe that small and solo practices in particular can benefit from HIPAA’s uniform transaction rule and have developed special CMA programs to help.

Under the HIPAA transaction rule, which simplifies and standardizes health care transactions and code sets, all claims must be submitted using a single form with uniform codes. Not only will this reduce the number of lost claims, but it will also lower physicians’ administrative costs. In one New York study, the administrative savings amounted to $7,200 a year per physician.

You do not have to spend, as these flyers claim, "tens of thousands of dollars on HIPAA compliance." The HIPAA rules specifically state that compliance measures need only be reasonable—and this is repeated more than 250 times in the privacy regulation—and scalable. Thus the measures a small practice has to take need not be huge or expensive. The CMA/PrivaPlan HIPAA Compliance ToolKit CD provides a low-cost solution that eliminates the need for outside consultants. The easy-to-use CD-ROM includes a step-by-step compliance plan and all the California-specific forms, policies, and procedures you will need. This information is not available anywhere else. While other HIPAA compliance packages have generic forms, the CMA ToolKit contains forms that have been customized to comply with California law.

CMA members can purchase the CD-ROM for a special discounted price of $325 (nonmember price is $495). For more information, or to download an order form,
click here.

Contact: CMA’s HIPAA Hotline, 415/882-3311 or legalinfo@cmanet.org.