[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]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P