As part of the sixty day Congressional Review Period for major final
rules, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published its
reviews of the procedural steps taken by the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) in preparing the final rules for updated HIPAA
transactions and code sets. These reviews are for the final rules
published in the Federal Register on 1/16/2009. Copies of the GAO's
reviews may be obtained at following links:
Transactions: X12 and NCPDP
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/majrule/d09331r.pdf
Code Sets: ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/majrule/d09335r.pdf

For both final rules, the GAO has determined "that HHS complied with the
applicable [procedural steps] requirements."

The GAO procedural reviews are the last required step necessary for the
updated HIPAA transactions and code sets regulations to become
effective. If no further -- negating -- actions are taken by Congress
or the Executive Branch, these regulations will take effect on
3/17/2009 -- as published in the Federal Register.

In other words, these new regulations will now automatically go into
effect unless somebody explicitly does something to stop them in the
next six weeks.

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