The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) will not initiate enforcement action for an additional three months, through June 30, against any covered entity that is required to comply with the HIPAA Version 5010 transaction sets.

This action follows a Nov. 17, 2011, announcement that, for a 90-day period, it would not initiate enforcement action against any covered entity that was not compliant with the updated versions of the standards by the Jan. 1 compliance date. This was referred to as enforcement discretion, and during this period, covered entities were encouraged to complete outstanding implementation activities including software installation, testing and training, OESS stated.

OESS is aware that there are still a number of outstanding issues and challenges impeding full implementation and believes these remaining issues warrant an extension of enforcement discretion to ensure that all entities can complete the transition. OESS stated it expects that transition statistics will reach 98 percent industrywide by the end of the enforcement discretion period.