(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)

In October of 2000, Medical Eye Services formed a HIPAA Core Committee as the first step in its commitment to comply with the Administrative Simplification Requirements by October 2003 and the Privacy Requirements by April 2003.

The Administrative Simplification Requirements of HIPAA (which were finalized in August of 2000) and the Privacy Requirements (which were amended in August of 2002) impact providers, employer groups, health plans, insurance companies, & billing services that exchange and/or maintain healthcare data electronically; including storing, printing, or sending data via computer that identifies a patient and their health condition, treatment, or payment.

This Federal Legislation has adopted industry standards in an effort to achieve uniform health information exchange through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Implementation guidelines for these standards include the following transactions:

• Enrollment
• Benefit Eligibility Inquiry
• Health care claim submittal
• Claim Status or Payment Inquiry
• Group Premium Payment

Medical Eye Services is committed to working together with our business associates, trading partners, providers, and vendors toward implementation of the HIPAA Standards to protect individually identifiable health information and to improve the efficiency of electronic healthcare transactions.

We will continue to update our website to inform you of our continual awareness and progress of this important legislation.