A draft version of X12N's version 005010 277 Health Care Claim
Request for Additional Information Implementation Guide, 005010X213, 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 for this guide began on 1 August 2006 and
will close on Wednesday, 30 August 2006, at 5:00 pm Eastern time.

The purpose of this 277 Implementation Guide is to allow a health care
payer to request additional information to support a health care claim
or encounter.

This is X12N's only unconstrained public comment period. The authors of
this guide will consider all comments during and following the public
comment period. For a complete understanding of changes being suggested
and/or made to this guide, reviewers should monitor the on-line
conference during the public comment period and consider all author
responses prior to the Informational Forum. Official authoring work
group responses will be posted to the on-line conference at least 15
days prior to the Informational Forum.

An announcement of the Informational Forum will be made later. The
Informational Forum, held during an X12 Trimester Meeting, probably the
one during the last full week of September, 2006, [see
http://www.x12.org/x12org/meetings/x12trimt/index.cfm ], is the final
X12 opportunity to comment: but generally 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.

The draft implementation guide is available for free download at:
http://www.wpc-edi.com/products/publications/x213 . Comments on the
draft may be submitted by anybody -- X12 member or not -- via the
on-line conference at:
http://www.wpc-edi.com/conferences/tg2/implementationguides .

The Health Care Claim Request for Additional Information
Implementation Guide, 005010X213, is not a counterpart of any that have
been adopted under HIPAA thus far, but, rather, contains changes from
the 004050 version of this guide promulgated in the HIPAA Claims
Attachments Transactions Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on
9/23/2005. These changes are in response to public comments received on
the NPRM.

It is the intent of X12N that the final form of this guide, once
published, be adopted as a HIPAA standard in a forthcoming HIPAA Claims
Attachments Transactions Final Rule. 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 for this guide is open to
all who may be interested; whether or not members of Accredited
Standards Committee X12. Please participate -- this is the highest
leverage opportunity for anybody outside of the authors to impact this
document.

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