Time Frames for New Workers' Comp Medical Billing and E-Billing Requirements
Several CWCI members have asked about the timeline anticipated for California workers’ compensation medical billing standards and e-billing requirements. DWC Forum comments on draft regulations and implementation guides ended last September (http://www.cwci.org/regulation.html?id=7) but the formal regulatory process has not yet begun. The DWC will initiate that process with a 45-day Notice of Public Hearing and the formal regulatory process will take up to a year to complete.
The Division plans to make the medical billing standards effective 3 months after the regulations are adopted, and the e-billing requirements effective 18 months after the regulations are adopted. Thus, if the state adopts the regulations at the end of this year, the new billing standards would take effect in March 2009 and the e-billing requirements would take effect in June 2010. Given these timeframes, I don’t believe e-billing requirements can start before 2010.
California was the first state to develop draft standards, followed closely by Texas, which adopted many of the standards drafted by California. The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) is now working closely with regulators from Texas and California to develop electronic billing standards for workers’ compensation that can be adopted nationally. You can sign up to receive updates from IAIABC on implementation of e-billing across the United States here: http://www.iaiabc.org/i4a/forms/form.cfm?id=18 .
I recently attended the IAIABC Forum on Electronic Medical Billing in Workers’ Compensation in Austin. The IAIABC distributed the slides from the forum’s vendor panel presentation and they provide some insight into what is being done, the issues that are being addressed, and work flows under the proposed model. The slides can be downloaded by clicking the following link:
http://www.iaiabc.org/files/public/EVENTS_EBilling_Vendor%20Presentation.pdf
The IAIABC plans to present its "model law" for e-billing at its 2008 Annual convention in Vancouver, BC, October 25 – 31 (http://www.bcin2008.com// ).
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