The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is planning to issue HIPAA regulations under the following schedule. The time from publication of the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to publication of the final rule is needed to review and respond to the large number of comments received on the NPRMs. (For example, we received over 17,000 comments on the Transactions and Code Sets NPRM alone.) Both the logistics of handling the large volume of comments, and the analysis of the issues raised by the comments affect the time it takes to develop a final rule. Once written, the final rules must be reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services and a number of its subordinate agencies, as well as by several other Federal departments affected by the rules. This schedule is, of course, subject to change.
Where dates are missing, HHS has not yet set any specific target dates.
NPRMs Already Published: | |||
Standard | NPRM Published | Expected Final Rule Publication | Expected Date Compliance Required* |
| Transactions and Code Sets | 5/07/1998 | Published August 17, 2000 Preamble | Regulation Text | October 16, 2002 |
| National Provider Identifier | 5/07/1998 | ||
| National Employer Identifier | 6/16/1998 | ||
| Security | 8/12/1998 | ||
| Privacy | 11/3/1999 | Published December 28, 2000 Preamble (in 3 parts) | Regulation Text | April 14, 2003 |
NPRMs in Development: | |||
Standard | Expected NPRM Publication | Expected Final Rule Publication | Expected Date Compliance Required* |
| National Health Plan Identifier | |||
| Claims Attachments | |||
| Enforcement | |||
| National Individual Identifier | On hold. | ||
| *Standards are required to be implemented generally within 2 years of the effective date of the final rule. (The effective date of the final rule is generally 60 days after its publication.) However, the effective date for the National Provider Identifier is likely to be delayed a few months to allow enough time for HHS to develop the system for implementing the identifier. | |||