Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: I saw that CMS moved the 5010 implementation deadline to March 31 -- which we were glad to see, because our practice wasn't quite ready for it on Jan.1. Can you tell us more about that?

Rhode Island Subscriber

Answer: CMS gave an early holiday gift of sorts to practices by announcing on Nov. 17, 2011, that it would not initiate enforcement action regarding 5010 until March 31, 2012. The official compliance date remained Jan. 1, 2012, but CMS won't penalize practices that aren't using 5010 until after the new 90-day "discretionary enforcement period" ends in March.

Key: If you weren't 5010 compliant on Jan. 1, your practice must be able to show that you're moving in that direction. "If requested, covered entities that are the subject of complaints must produce evidence of either compliance or a good faith effort to become compliant with the new HIPAA standards during the 90-day period," CMS said in its statement.

Visit the CMS website (www.cms.gov) for more details on 5010 implementation and the enforcement period.