NYSACRA

HIPAA TRANSACTION COMPLIANCE- EXTENSION

Mario Tedesco from State Department of Health (DOH) has notified the MRDD HIPAA Task Force that NYS DOH is going to extend the date for mandatory submission of Medicaid transactions in a HIPAA compliant format beyond February 18, 2004.  DOH will be sending out this letter (pdf 78kb) to all Medicaid providers within the week announcing this decision.

Following the lead of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), DOH will not be setting a new compliance date, but will work o­n setting staged milestones for HIPAA compliance and providers will be notified when a compliance date is eventually set.  Until then, Medicaid providers and vendors will be able to submit Medicaid claims in either the "old" proprietary billing format or the "new" HIPAA-compliant format.
(See http://www.nysacra.org/nysacra/HIPAAfeb04.pdf) (pdf 78kb)

NYS-DOH MEDICAID UPDATES

Please review the DOH Medicaid Update recently suggested for dissemination by OMR.  The DOH website contains much up-to-date information for Medicaid providers and other health and health related information.  The website includes regular Medicaid updates.  The address is:
www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/medicaid/medicaid.htm.
Check it regularly for information including HIPAA updates.

PRESIDENT BUSH SENDS BUDGET TO CONGRESS

Monday, February 2, 2004 President Bush sent his spending plan for FY 2005 to Congress.  According to ANCOR, the President’s budget proposal calls for no specifics regarding Medicaid reform except to build o­n last year’s proposal.   In a briefing by the Kaiser Commission o­n Medicaid and the Uninsured, Bill Hoagland said this is a tough budget that includes trade offs of increases and elimination of some programs, and it will be a difficult year for people working o­n health care issues given the context of pressure for tax cuts and the growing deficit.  He said it would be unlikely that there would be major changes in Medicare and Medicaid.  In addition to being a tough budget year, this is also a political year with the Presidential and Congressional elections in November, and it’s a short Congressional year—only 62 Congressional working days before the beginning of the next fiscal year that begins o­n October 1.

COMMISSIONER MAUL TESTIFIES BEFORE BUDGET HEARING

On February 4^th, Commissioner Maul made his annual budget justification before the joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committee. The Legislators o­n the committees did not provide Commissioner Maul with any significant questions after his testimony.  For a copy of the Commissioner’s Budget Briefing Booklet:
visit http://www.omr.state.ny.us/budget/2004/index.jsp.

PLEASE SEND IN LEGISLATIVE DAY 2004 PICTURES & EVAL’S

Please send in any pictures you took while attending NYSACRA’s Legislative Day, with permission to print for our Newsletter or other publications by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or mail; and your evaluation forms faxed to 518-449-1509.