Over the past years, many of you have asked for an implementation guide
that may be followed to acknowledge transactions at a more detailed
level than that allowed by a TA1, 999, or 997 transaction. A draft
version of such a guide is now available for public review and comment
as a key step in its X12 Type 3 Technical Report (TR3) publication
process. The public comment period commenced October 1, 2004, and
will close on November 30, 2004, at 5:00 pm Eastern time.

The purpose of the X12N Health Care Implementation Guide and Application
Reporting (824) Implementation Guide, 005010X186, is to:
· Enable a receiver of an X12 transaction, related to insurance business
processes, to report errors that are outside of the scope of the 997
or 999 error reporting, or to report the results of an application
system's data content edits of transaction sets.
· Report transaction errors related to the use of any other approved
implementation guide that does not have another standard vehicle for
the reporting of such errors.
· Supplement other error-reporting vehicles that may not provide for
reporting of every transaction set error.

Note that this 824 implementation guide does not replace existing
approved implementation guides designed to report transaction errors;
such as the 277 implementation guide designed for reporting certain
implementation-related errors and status in the 837. Nor does it
replace transaction-specific 824 implementation guides such as the
266/824 or the 148/824.

The authors of this guide will consider all comments following the
public comment period. Official work group responses will be posted to
the on-line conference at least 15 days prior to the corresponding
Informational Forum. This is X12's only unconstrained public comment
period. For a complete understanding of changes being suggested and/or
made to the guide, reviewers should monitor the on-line conference
during the public comment period and consider all author responses prior
to the Informational Forum.

An announcement of the corresponding Informational Forum will be made
later. The Informational Forum, held during an X12 Trimester Meeting,
probably the one during the first full week of February, 2005, [see
http://x12.org/x12org/meetings/x12trimt/index.cfm ], is the final X12
opportunity to comment: but only on modifications based on the received
public comments. After that, the guide is finalized for movement
through the Insurance Subcommittee (X12N) and X12 publication approval
processes; and perhaps proposal as a new HIPAA standard.

The draft implementation guide is available for free download at:
http://www.wpc-edi.com/HealthCareDraft.asp . Comments on the draft can
be submitted by anybody via the on-line conference at:
http://www.wpc-edi.com/conferences/healthcare.html .

This Implementation Guide is not a counterpart of any that have been
adopted under HIPAA, and no official discussions regarding any such
adoption have been held. A factor in such discussions, should they be
initiated, will be any comments received. Voluntary use, once this
guide is published as a TR3, is, of course, permissible at any time
based on negotiated agreements between willing trading partners. HIPAA
is a floor, not a ceiling!

Participation in the public comment period is open to all who may be
interested. Please participate -- this is the highest leverage
opportunity for anybody outside of the authors to impact this document.
Also note that this is a version 005010 guide. A version
004010 guide is also being written and is presently projected for public
comment during June-July, 2005 [see
www.x12.org/x12org/subcommittees/X12N/N0200_X12N005010_TR3.pdf ].

Dave Feinberg
Co-chair, HIPAA Implementation Work Group
Insurance Subcommittee (X12N)
Accredited Standards Committee X12
Rensis Corporation [A Consulting Company]
206-617-1717
DAFeinberg@...