A draft federal regulation, known as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making
(NPRM), on standard electronic transactions to be used for electronic
prescription drug processing (e-prescribing) is now available for public
review and comment {Federal Register, volume 70, number 23, 2/04/2005,
pages 6255-6274}. The public comment period commenced on 4 February
2005 and will close on 5 April 2005, at 5:00 pm Eastern time.

This NPRM specifies the following purposes, participants, and standard
transactions.

Prescriptions
between prescribers and dispensers
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) SCRIPT
version 5.0 for the following dozen actions (only):
· Get message transaction
· Status response transaction
· Error response transaction
· New prescription transaction
· Prescription change request transaction
· Prescription change response transaction
· Refill prescription request transaction
· Refill prescription response transaction
· Verification transaction
· Password change transaction
· Cancel prescription request transaction
· Cancel prescription response transaction.
--> The NCPDP SCRIPT standard is likely new to many of you. It may
be obtained from www.ncpdp.org/frame_standards.htm .

Eligibility
between prescribers and Prescription Drug Card Sponsors
X12N Implementation Guide and Addenda 004010X092 +
004010X092A1, a.k.a 270/271 transactions
--> This is the same standard adopted under HIPAA for this purpose
and essentially these participants.

Eligibility
between dispensers and Prescription Drug Card Sponsors
NCPDP Telecommunications Standard 5.1 and
NCPDP Batch Standard version 1.1
--> These are the same standards adopted under HIPAA for this
purpose and essentially these participants.

Note that Medicare Prescription Drug Card Sponsors were explicitly added
as HIPAA covered entities via an Interim Rule and Notice published in
the Federal Register on 12/15/2003.


This is the federal government's first major new healthcare standard
transactions NPRM since 1998. Even though this NPRM is technically only
for Medicare, the standards proposed have wide applicability to the
broader medication prescribing environment. Participation in the public
comment period is open to all who may be interested.

Dave Feinberg
Rensis Corporation [A Consulting Company]
206-617-1717
DAFeinberg@...
Author of "Understanding HIPAA Communications"

P.S. The HIPAA Enforcement NPRM appears to remain targeted for
Federal Register publication during the latter part of this month.
There will also be a sixty day public comment period for it. Plus, more
X12N TR3 drafts for comment are also imminent.

DAF