Y2K compliance deadline - less than 500 days away - causes concern
Y2K compliance deadline - less than 500 days away - causes concern
AHA 'troubled by [HCFA's] lack of direct communication'
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in Baltimore expects providers to have their Medicare claims compliant for the year 2000 by January 1, 1999, according to agency briefings.
Representatives for the Chicago-based American Hospital Association (AHA), heard the news at a recent HCFA technical advisory meeting. Medicare fiscal intermediaries (FIs) were expected to take until the end of last month to advise providers of the new electronic billing specifications. Testing for Y2K compliance is to begin Oct. 1.
HCFA will advise carriers, however, that non-Y2K compliant claims submitted by providers should not be rejected, though HCFA may alter this policy in the future, according to a HCFA briefing attended by the government affairs staff of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) in Englewood, CO.
The problem is that a number of hospitals haven't yet heard from their Medicare FIs and may not know that they face a January 1, 1999, Y2K compliance deadline for Medicare claims, says Rick Pollack, executive vice president of government and public affairs for the AHA.
In an Aug. 21 letter to HCFA administrator Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, Pollack says, "While the AHA applauds your efforts to focus attention on the complexities of the Y2K issue, we are troubled by the lack of direct communication with the provider community."
Providers have not received formal notification from HCFA about the impending deadline for compliance, Pollack says. He urges HCFA to use additional methods for communicating Y2K policies to the hospital and health system community. "We recommend that the AHA serve as a partner with HCFA in establishing a systematic mechanism to communicate Y2K compliance requirements faced by hospitals and health systems," he states in the letter.
Feedback from the letter is still expected, explains Dionne Dougall, assistant director of media relations for the AHA. The association has not yet advised its member organizations to take any action about the compliance deadline. Even so, it wouldn't hurt for hospitals to contact their FIs, especially if they don't hear from the them first, she says.
Additional information revealed
Other information that the MGMA staff learned at the HCFA briefing included:
· Independent auditors have given the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington an "F" grade for its Y2K compliance. Department officials argue, however, that this is primarily because HCFA has such an enormous task bringing the agency into Y2K compliance. Out of almost 100 "mission critical systems" at HCFA, however, seven have been identified as extremely critical. Of these seven, HCFA claims that six are now Y2K compliant and the seventh was scheduled to be completed by the end of August.
· Retirees have been hired by HCFA to assist in recoding almost 50 million lines of code. HCFA has also hired two independent validation contractors to monitor and evaluate the agency's compliance program and to perform various tests to ensure that the system will operate properly on January 1, 2000, and beyond.
· HCFA cautioned providers that biomedical equipment manufacturers could potentially be Y2K noncompliant. According to HCFA officials, the waiting list for certain compliant equipment was 70 weeks or more. Providers must develop contingency plans (including ordering from alternate suppliers and/or teaming with other providers to offer patient services) in the event that they are unable to secure compliant equipment. Early in 1999, HCFA will publish its own Y2K contingency plan and allow the public to comment.
· HCFA officials warned providers that the potential exists for litigation in the wake of Y2K biomedical equipment malfunctions. Providers should be aware that there could be considerable legal ramifications to Y2K noncompliance.
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