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RECEIVED 2 5 2002 CASS COUflIY COMMISSION MARK JOHNSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Memorandum TO: CC: FROM: DATE: RE: County Commission Chairs County Auditors, Social Service Directors Mark A. Johnson, NDACo Executive director April 25, 2002 HIPAA Compliance Efforts By now you have likely heard of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and its impact on counties. A "HIPAA Primer" is included with this correspondence to give you an overview of the "administrative simplification" section of the bill that creates the requirements for county agencies. You will notice that just the overview of this section is three pages long, the complete regulations and instructions that must be complied with, are close to four inches thick. This section of federal law requires all electronic health billing to be standardized, and the privacy and security protections of the health billing information to be strengthened. Because of the county role in social services (and possibly public health), counties have no choice but to comply with this Act. It is the belief of the County Social Service Directors Association, the Department of Human Services, and the NDACo Board of Directors, that counties will be better able to comply as a group, than if each county agency tries to address the numerous requirements on their own. It is our intention to assist in this effort by employing a County HIPAA Coordinator to facilitate joint compliance of all counties in concert with the State's efforts to comply. Included with this correspondence is an "Addendum of Acknowledgement" to the Master Joint Powers Agreement for Purchasing that already includes every county in the State. This Addendum is the vehicle by which your county can join the project and gain the assistance of the County HIPAA Coordinator. We encourage you to consider joining this group. If you chose to join, you will be hilled the amount on the included schedule, which is your county's share, based on relative population and HCBS caseload, for the remainder of this calendar year. A final amount for CY2003 will be provided to you by August, but it has been estimated on the attached schedule as well. We are hopeful that this project can be completed in CY2003, however delays in the release of the final federal regulations, or amendments to the HIPAA Act could extend the project into 2004. If you have any questions, please call Terry or myself at the office and I encourage you to discuss this with your social service director. The social service directors were very supportive of this concept as a group, and your director would appreciate your help. We hope that you can act on this "Addendum" at your next board meeting, as time is short for some of the immediate federal filing deadlines.