HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996

Beech Street has stayed abreast of the regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).  Final rules have been issued and implemented for standardized electronic transactions, privacy, national employer identifier, and security.  Beech Street is actively preparing for the national provider identifier compliance date in May 2007.  We are committed to supporting our clients with compliance with these regulations.

We have established policies and procedures and implemented aspects of the regulations that impact our services, including system enhancements.  Additionally, we have crafted new contract language for both provider and client agreements to assist with compliance efforts by those with whom we conduct business. 

Business Associate Addendum

If you represent an employer group, insurance company, TPA, or other client that holds a contract with Beech Street, please click here to request a new security Business Associate Addendum or updated addendum. If you do not wish to make this request online, please contact your designated Account Manager.

Ongoing Initiatives

HIPAA Compliance Committee:  This group is responsible for the assessment and implementation of the final regulations as published in the Federal Register.  This cross-functional team is comprised of representatives for each area of the organization, including Account Management, Information Technology, Human Resources, National Contracting and Healthcare Management. 

Assessment and GAP Analysis:  With issuance of each component of the HIPAA regulations, Beech Street completes a GAP analysis to assess our core business applications, local and wide area networks, business processes, and documentation to identify areas that may require modification in order to comply with the new rules.

Implementation: Beech Street has implemented the ASC X12N 837 v4010 for both professional and institutional claims transmissions, the ASC X12N 834 Enrollment / Disenrollment transmissions, and ASC X12N 276/277 Claim Status Request and Response.  Privacy and security of Protected Health Information (PHI) and electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) has been implemented through revision of policies and procedures, system and software enhancements and all-employee annual training. 

Contracts: Beech Street evaluates each contractual relationship it enters, whether it is with a software vendor, a client, or a provider, to determine the need for confidentiality of PHI.

Continued Monitoring:  Our cross-functional implementation team will continue to monitor HIPAA standards and guidelines, including future modifications to the final rules, to ensure our continued awareness and assess our continued compliance with the provisions of HIPAA.  Our HIPAA compliance initiatives are an integral part of how we do business.  We are confident that our focus and commitment will minimize any impact on client relations and that we will continue to provide the exceptional service our clients have come to expect from us.