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HHS to Strengthen Enforcement of HIPAA Transaction Rules

"HHS acknowledged that the industry has experienced challenges in implementing HIPAA administrative simplification requirements, including the ICD-10 diagnostic code set, version 5010 of the HIPAA transaction standards, and the eligibility and claims status operating rules. In the past, HHS has responded to industry requests for additional time by delaying implementation or relaxing enforcement of the rules ... [T]he government has decided to mandate certification of compliance with the operating rules, but plans won't have to submit the required documentation until Dec. 31, 2015."

IBM's Watson Could Be Healthcare Game Changer

"IBM announced the release of three new health care decision-support applications [which use Watson, IBM's 'cognitive' computing platform]. The three new applications include one for recommending cancer treatment options and two for reviewing and authorizing treatments and related health insurance claims.... The doctor uses touch navigation to browse the latest symptoms and test results. The decision support is delivered as a prioritized list of recommended tests and treatment regimens together with confidence scores and links to supporting research."

E-Health Privacy Regulations Draw Congressional Fire

Excerpt: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an interim final rule to beef up penalties for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA), as several Congressmen criticize the agency for leaving dangerous loopholes in the law.

Hewitt Moving Some Call-Center Ops To India

Excerpt: Hewitt Associates LLC, the human-resource outsourcing company, plans next year to open a call center outside New Delhi to handle inquiries from employees at Hewitt's client companies. Bryan Doyle, outsourcing business leader at Hewitt, says the center will handle calls related to workers' flexible-spending health-care accounts and other general inquiries.

HMO Named Top Information Technology Innovator Among Large U.S. Companies

Excerpt: HIP [Health Plan of New York] employees solve customer-service problems on the first call 93% of the time. With that quality of service, HIP maintains it has the lowest customer-turnover rate of any medical plan in the country.