BALTIMORE Oct. 29, 2002 Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of BizTalk® Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0, a software solution designed to reduce the cost and administrative work in the claims submission process and help healthcare organizations comply with electronic transaction set provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Microsoft made the announcement today at the Fifth National HIPAA Summit in Baltimore, Md.
Taking a proactive approach to HIPAA transactions, the BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA provides prebuilt support for healthcare claims attachments that enables providers to electronically attach reports, results and progress notes with each electronic claim and allows payers to receive and process these claims. In addition, the new version provides an easy-to-use Trading Partner Manager that allows healthcare organizations to efficiently manage the numerous partner connections that HIPAA compliance requires and reduce the costs associated with ongoing administration.
“The BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0 benefits both payers and providers by reducing cost delays and the administrative work of sending and receiving clinical documentation with claims for payment,”
said David Lubinski, general manager of the Healthcare Industry Solutions Group at Microsoft.
“Microsoft demonstrates its commitment to the healthcare industry by making rapid updates in the product to include the most recent HIPAA transaction set changes, which were finalized only three weeks ago. This new offering enables healthcare organizations to go beyond HIPAA transaction compliance and take advantage of greater efficiencies while creating a foundation for all their future e-health initiatives.”
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana is already seeing results using the Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator.
“Our company originally adopted Microsofts BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 1.0 to comply with the new HIPAA standards and to save approximately $214,000 in long-term maintenance and development costs,”
said Joe Fleming, e-business executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana.
“Within six weeks, we were able to set up and test custom mapping for our Medicare Part A and B business units. We are early adopters for BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0 to take advantage of the de-identification capabilities for protected health information and the new features of the Trading Partner Manager that are already simplifying the setup and maintenance of our claims clearinghouse.”
“Under Medi-Cal in the state of California, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH) performs billing for more than 1,000 contract providers and has more than 30 million records in its legacy databases. Sierra Systems was selected by the Department of Mental Health to provide a wrapper solution to its HIPAA remediation needs. John Galloway, project director at Sierra Systems Group Inc., said,”
The flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the Microsoft solutions for HIPAA will allow us to convert DMHs complex IT environment into a HIPAA-compliant integrated system without modification to its legacy systems. The built-in schema and XML wrapper allow us to meet the deadlines for HIPAA compliance.
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New in BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0
BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0 will include the following new features:
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Support for new HIPAA standards. BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA 2.0 comes with the initial release of the HIPAA adopted X12N implementation guides and the Addenda Documents approved by X12N in October 2002, which includes additions and deletions to the original May 2000 documents. The new Addenda are expected to become mandated by the extended HIPAA transaction deadline of October 2003.
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Future mandated transaction support. Version 2.0 includes proactive support for the Health Care Claim Request for Additional Information (277) and Additional Information to Support a Health Care Claim or Encounter (275) transactions. This technology enables provider organizations to address payers needs for additional information required to process and pay a claim, and allows payers to process claims faster without paper-based documentation.
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Trading Partner Manager. The Trading Partner Manager interface provides an easy-to-use method for establishing relationships and managing HIPAA trading partners, resulting in simplified administration and reduced management costs.
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Standard and de-identified maps. Testing has been simplified with de-identification maps that enable organizations to use real data for testing without the concern of exposing sensitive patient information. BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA also provides maps based on industry standards to help healthcare organizations effectively learn and utilize the intricacies of mapping.
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Code List Loader. Numerous code lists are external to the X12N Implementation Guide, but are required when using X12 standards. The External Code List Import Wizard in BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA helps organizations easily add and use several of these external code lists.
Microsoft is currently working with systems integrators as well as other software vendors, including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, EDS, G.A. Sullivan, Sierra Systems Group Inc., Extreme Logic Inc., iCelerate Inc., MidTech Partners Inc., InterKnowlogy LLC, Healthlink, Healthaxis and Quality Care Solutions Inc. (QCSI), to help healthcare organizations build HIPAA-transaction functionality and put critical infrastructure in place for future business needs.
Foundational Technology for the Future of Healthcare
BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA was developed to enable healthcare organizations to achieve and maintain compliance with HIPAA transaction standards quickly and cost-effectively. The BizTalk Accelerator is an industry-specific extension to Microsoft® BizTalk Server and includes a complete enterprise platform, a product set that can be deployed rapidly, downloadable schema updates, prebuilt support for the 12 HIPAA-mandated transaction sets, and the combined expertise of Washington Publishing Co. the exclusive publisher of the X12N Implementation Guides adopted under HIPAA and Microsoft. Built on the Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server family, a suite of enterprise-class servers built to take advantage of the .NET Framework and Web services, BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA delivers benefits that extend beyond HIPAA transaction compliance.
Through legacy integration capabilities, BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA helps extend the life of existing systems while introducing the benefits of a new system. BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA is designed around XML, which enables healthcare organizations to exchange, manage and distribute information while providing a cost-effective infrastructure that is scalable, flexible and agile. BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA translates inbound HIPAA electronic data interchange (EDI) documents into XML for processing, making it dramatically easier to integrate them into other systems and technologies. In addition, BizTalk Accelerator offers integral tools to support future implementations around industry standards such as XML and SOAP.
Pricing and Availability
BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAAs estimated retail price is $5,000 per processor for Standard Edition and $20,000 per processor for Enterprise Edition. It is scheduled to be generally available by Dec. 1.
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