MBProject - Roundtable History

HIPAA Policy Roundtable History

1st HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: October, 2001
Event: 3rd National HIPAA Summit
Location: Washington, DC

The event was organized by MBProject to solicit feedback from the Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Civil Rights division, regarding the interpretation of HIPAA's impact on medical payment channels. The event was by invitation only and included HHS, HFMA, Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, commercial banks, the American Bankers Association, National Automated Clearinghouse Association and others.

2nd HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: December, 2001
Event: Online Webcast
Location: Franklin, TN

The first roundtable left many unanswered questions and a need to sift through the issues. MBProject organized this Roundtable at the request of many of the large banks attending, and other industry experts, to continue a policy dialogue. The "HIPAA Gang" began to take shape, comprised of 4 highly distinguished experts in law, policy development and EDI.

3rd HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: February 2002
Event: Online Webcast
Location: Franklin, TN

The policy roundtables started to focus in on when a bank is a business associate versus a covered entity under HIPAA. At the time, the notion of a "bank-based, health data clearinghouse" was an emerging construct. In this roundtable, we started to explore treasury management services that are impacted.

4th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: April 2002
Event: Online Webcast
Location: Franklin, TN
Special Guest: Gail Sausser, Rose Health Law Group; Chair of HFMA HIPAA@Work Task Force, Seattle, WA

By April, a number of banking groups were starting to assess their operations. Numerous issues were being raised as to the appropriate classification of cash disbursement and lockbox services. Our offices collected these issues and presented them to this panel. Our first guest speaker - Gail Sausser, JD, Chair, HFMA HIPAA@Work Task Force, presented an urgent appeal that banks prepare for HIPAA. Many in the banking community were still skeptical of HIPAA's impact.

5th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: June 2002
Event: Online Webcast
Location: Franklin, TN
Special Guest: William R. Braithwaite, MD, PhD, FACMI, Director, National HIPAA Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Washington, DC

Numerous legal firms began to call our offices from both the medical and banking areas. It was clear that there was an impact but the extent was still being defined. At this roundtable, "Dr. HIPAA", former HHS official William R. Braithwaite, MD, PhD, now with PricewaterhouseCoopers, provides his view point on the issues. Dr. Braithwaite was a primary architect of HIPAA during its formative years.

6th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: August 2002
Event: The HIPAA Colloquium at Harvard University
Location: Boston, MA
Special Guest: Tom Hanks, Director HIPAA Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Chicago, IL

This event marked our first "national town meeting" event at prestigious Annenberg Hall where we had a combined a live audience, our HIPAA experts and a national telephone call in audience. The HIPAA Gang reviews the principles on which the ABA/NACHA working proposal is based and finds discrepancy in interpretations. Also, HFMA approves airing of a landmark press release issuing a "wake-up call" to medical providers who may be at risk in their banking relationships.

7th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: October 2002
Event: The Medical Banking Institute, A Special Preconference Symposium, 5th National HIPAA Summit
Location: Baltimore, MD
Special Guest: Larry Watkins, Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Claredi Corporation

Regulators, commercial banks, IT firms, lobbyists, news organizations, healthcare providers and others convened at the Medical Banking Institute during a full day session - the first of its kind. The Roundtable featured an emerging debate in the area of certification. How can a bank certify that its services are compliant with the current rules and regulations of HIPAA? Our guest, Larry Watkins, COO of Claredi, provided an important overview and update in this area.

8th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: January 2003
Event: LEGALTECH
Location: New York, New York
Special Guest: Rick Morrison, Chief Executive Officer, Remettra, Inc., Little Rock, AR

Our Roundtable session looks at the HIPAA Privacy Rule impact on banks as implementation efforts gain momentum on the eve of the April 14, 2003 compliance date. We analyze a White Paper drafted by the president of the Medical Banking Institute, (published by CCH Financial Privacy Legal Guide), which concludes that the current payments flowing through the ACH need to be changed in order to come under compliance with HIPAA.

9th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: March 2003
Event: The Medical Banking Institute, A Special Preconference Symposium, 6th National HIPAA Summit
Location: Washington, DC
Special Guest: Richard Whitmer, CEO, Insight Healthcare Financial, LLC.

The 9th HIPAA Policy Roundtable was produced live at the Second National Medical Banking Institute, Preconference Symposium II of the 6th National HIPAA Summit in Washington, DC. It featured an excellent overview of the challenges facing the banking community when a healthcare provider violates its loan agreement. Normally, the bank perfects its interest in the receivable, is assigned the collateral and can collect payments. The problem: medical receivables are “PHI-laden”…they contain health information that is protected by HIPAA. If the bank doesn’t have a business associate contract in place, access to the collateral may be difficult. The privacy wrap on PHI in medical receivable is by-product of the HIPAA regulation that is complex. Make sure to review this important discussion if you’re impacted by this issue.

10th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: May 2003
Event: 12th Annual Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDi) Annual Conference
Location: Washington, DC
Special Guests:
Ed Jones, Chair, Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Board of Directors
Cathy Nelson, Vice President, Business Development, National Processing Company, Inc.

The 10th HIPAA Policy Roundtable was produced live at the 12th Annual Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDi) Annual Conference, Washington, DC. It featured the Chair of the WEDi Board of Directors and a prominent expert in the banking arena – Cathy Nelson with NPC. The message was clear: the new frontier in EDI efficiency in healthcare will come from integrating banking infrastructure and healthcare administrative operations. Other areas reviewed included card-based technologies.

11th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: July 2003
Event: Online Webcast
Location: Franklin, TN
Special Guest: Robert Lajoie, Vice President, Product Manager, FleetBoston Financial

The issue of the day during Round 11 was "cash flow contingency planning" - how providers will deal with electronically submitted claims that reject because they aren't HIPAA compliant. CMS Administrator Tom Scully wrote a letter just prior to the Roundtable informing providers that Medicare will reject all non-compliant claims that are submitted electronically. This hard line policy goes against the wave of letters CMS has received from WEDi, AHA, NCVHS and others urging leniency, as defined in the industry as "operational compliance". Weeks earlier, CMS Enforcement Officer Lori Davis rejected the idea of "operational compliance" - claims that are valid but not 100% HIPAA compliant - because it runs counter to what the regulations intended; to reduce the number of electronic formats and thereby decrease overall processing costs for the industry. Hear the HIPAA Gang and special guest Bob Lejoie from FleetBoston Financial, and others joining the roundtable, wrestle with the issues during the 11th HIPAA Policy Roundtable.

12th HIPAA Policy Roundtable
Date: September 2003
Event: Online Webcast
Location: Franklin, TN
Special Guest: Christeena Naser, Senior Counsel, The American Bankers Association

Our 12th HIPAA Policy Roundtable was focused on the impact of HIPAA on RDFIs - largely community banks that receive ACH transactions. Interestingly, the American Bankers Association drafted a letter to Jared Adair, Director of the Office of HIPAA Standards for CMS, in which they sought clarification on two issues: the transmission of PHI through banking structures and the scope of Section 1179 exemption. At our roundtable, we invited an ABA attorney to address these issues. She stated that the ABA's official position is that banks aren't impacted by HIPAA per Section 1179. This position is opposite the clear guidance published by CMS in the Preamble to the Privacy Rule. One of our HIPAA Gang members, Lee Barrett, recommended that MBProject sponsor an open medical banking policy forum and invite all interested parties. It was seconded by Alan Goldberg, another HIPAA Gang member, who interestingly reversed his position on the impact of HIPAA during our roundtable session. After the "show", we contacted CMS and confirmed their interest in a special forum, which will be held in November as our next HIPAA Policy Roundtable session.