A bill, HR 4157, to improve healthcare information technology was passed
by the House of Representatives [vote was 270-148] on 28 July. It's
most salient HIPAA TCS features include:
+ replacing the current HIPAA transaction standards with X12
version 005010 and the most current version of NCPDP --
without using the NPRM process -- for compliance by 1 April
2009,
+ replacing ICD-9 diagnoses and procedure codes with ICD-10-CM
and ICD-10-PCS with compliance by 1 October 2010, and
+ instituting an expedited process for adopting future HIPAA
transaction standards beyond versions 005010 and the
legislated version of NCPDP.

The complete status and text of HR 4157 are now available via
http://thomas.loc.gov . HR 4157 is presently on its way to a
House-Senate conference committee to resolve differences between it and
already-passed-by-the-Senate S 1418 ... for starters. S 1418 contains
none of the HIPAA TCS provisions included in HR 4157; although, draft
S 1952 does contain some of the first two. Work of this conference
committee is not scheduled to begin until at least after Congress
returns from it's August break.

Feel free to contact me should you desire further explanations of what's
going on.

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