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4. When will the standards become effective?

The standards become effective 24 months after adoption for most organizations; 36 months after adoption for small health plans. Delays in adoption of the standards will not shorten these periods for implementation.

Several steps precede the implementation date. These steps began when Congress enacted HIPAA on August 21, 1996.

Under the law, the Secretary was required to adopt the standards for transactions within 18 months (within 30 months for claims attachments). The process is on-going and is designed to assure consensus within the government before the proposed standards are published.

Notices of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) will be published in the Federal Register. These will be followed by a 60-day public comment period on the proposed standards. Final regulations will be issued after the comments have been received and analyzed and Final Rules developed.

Implementation Guides for X12N transaction standards, which will be incorporated into the NPRMs, are available now.

NPRM publications will be announced and available on the Administrative Simplification website.

After the Final Rules on the standards are issued, health plans have 2 years to begin to comply. Small health plans have 3 years. Any health plan can begin to comply voluntarily before the deadlines.

One other important deadline: Within 12 months of enactment, the Secretary was required to submit to Congress detailed recommendations for Federal legislation to protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information. These recommendations were delivered on September 11, 1997.

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