[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 57 (Friday, March 24, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17780-17781]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06034]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Office of the Secretary
45 CFR Parts 160 and 162
[CMS-0053-N]
RIN 0938-AT38
Administrative Simplification: Adoption of Standards for Health
Care Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures, and
Modification to Referral Certification and Authorization Transaction
Standard; Extension of Comment Period
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS).
ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period.
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SUMMARY: This document extends the comment period for the proposed rule
that appeared in the Federal Register on December 21, 2022, titled
``Administrative Simplification: Adoption of Standards for Health Care
Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures, and Modification to
Referral Certification and Authorization Transaction Standard. The
comment period for the proposed rule, which would end on March 21,
2023, is extended until April 21, 2023.
DATES: The comment period for the December 21, 2022 proposed rule (87
FR 78438) is extended to 5 p.m., eastern daylight time, on April 21,
2023.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as outlined in the December 21, 2022
proposed rule (87 FR 78438). Please choose only one of the methods
listed.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Geanelle G. Herring, (410) 786-4466
and Christopher Wilson, (410) 786-3178.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Inspection of Public Comments: All comments
[[Page 17781]]
received before the close of the comment period shall be made available
for viewing by the public, including any personally identifiable or
confidential business information that is included in a comment. We
will post all comments received before the close of the comment period
on the following website as soon as possible after they have been
received: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the search instructions
on that website to view public comments.
In the December 21, 2022 Federal Register (87 FR 78438), we
published a proposed rule titled ``Administrative Simplification:
Adoption of Standards for Health Care Attachments Transactions and
Electronic Signatures, and Modification to Referral Certification and
Authorization Transaction Standard'' (hereinafter referred to as the
December 2022 proposed rule). This rule would implement requirements of
the Administrative Simplification subtitle of the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and
Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, enacted on March 30, 2010--
collectively, the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, this proposed rule
would adopt standards for ``health care attachments'' transactions,
which would support both health care claims and prior authorization
transactions, and a standard for electronic signatures to be used in
conjunction with health care attachments transactions. To better
support the use of the proposed standards for attachments transactions
with prior authorization transactions, this rule also proposes to adopt
a modification to the standard for the referral certification and
authorization transaction (X12 278) to move from Version 5010 to
Version 6020.
In the March 17, 2023 Federal Register (88 FR 16392), we published
a correcting document to correct typographical and technical errors in
the December 2022 proposed rule, for which we had provided for 90 days
for public comment. That correcting document simply conformed the
regulations text to the proposed policies discussed in the preamble to
the December 2022 proposed rule. But, we believe it is important to
allow the public to have the benefit of reviewing the proposed rule as
we intended it, particularly because most of the errors in the proposed
rule were in the regulations text. Therefore, we are extending the
comment period for the December, 2022, proposed rule by 30 days. This
document announces the extension of the public comment period for the
proposed rule, which will now end at 5 p.m., eastern daylight time, on
April 21, 2023.
Dated: March 20, 2023.
Xavier Becerra,
Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services.
[FR Doc. 2023-06034 Filed 3-21-23; 11:15 am]
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