As many of you know, retail pharmacy prescription claims are adjudicated
in real-time using the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs
(NCPDP) HIPAA transaction standard. As you also know, other HIPAA
claims transactions -- professional, institutional, and dental -- don't
typically process nearly so rapidly.

Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 and the Workgroup for EDI
(WEDI) are presently in the early stages of determining the mechanisms
and standards that could be used to speed up adjudication of claims
submitted using X12 837 HIPAA transaction standards; and maybe other
transactions as well. As a key step in this determination, a Real-Time
Adjudication Conference will be held during the week of this coming
Valentine's Day. Initial details on this conference can be found at
http://www.x12.org/rta2007.cfm .

Consider this message an early alert. Further information on the
Real-Time Adjudication Conference will be communicated as it becomes
known. Actual development of real-time adjudication standards is
expected to be done as part of the usual X12 meetings
(http://www.x12.org/x12org/meetings/x12trimt/index.cfm), conference
calls, and web postings.

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