Read me first

Abstract

In the early 1990s, health plans attempted to standardize the claim payment life cycle claims submission, processing and payment in the health care system. This effort sought to gain efficiencies, improve quality and reduce costs. At the time, electronic health information was shared in a multitude of formats with varying industry-imposed requirements.1 Realizing that industry needed federal action to mandate standardization, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191 (HIPAA), in 1996. One of HIPAA’s primary objectives is to achieve “administrative simplification” in the claim payment life-cycle.2