The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its HIPAA contingency plan on Sept. 23, which will allow Medicare to accept and pay claims in the current format after Oct. 16, 2003. HIPAA requires all payers and providers to move to a standard, national format for electronic transactions by Oct. 16, 2003. CMS acknowledged that many providers are still implementing these transactions and that accepting claims in the current format will "move us toward the dual goals of achieving HIPAA compliance while not disrupting providers' cash flow and operations." CMS does not specify a time period for the plan.

Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, HIP Health Plan, and GHI have also adopted contingency plans to allow providers to submit transactions in current formats. Aetna and Oxford Health Plans, which receive transactions through clearinghouses, indicated that providers should be able to continue submitting claims to the clearinghouses in current formats but that clearinghouses must translate these claims into modified HIPAA transactions, which will not include all the new, modified data requirements or allow providers to use defaults for these values. Aetna and Oxford will accept these modified transactions for a transition period. Most of the commercial payers have not announced timeframes for these contingency plans, but suggest close alignment with CMS's timeline.

NYS and NJ Medicaid will accept claims and other transactions as they do today until Feb. 18, 2004, and Jan. 1, 2004, respectively.