HIA Announces HIPAA Help Online

Alexandria, VA, February, 2003...In a move that will facilitate industry compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Hearing Industries Association (HIA) launched its HIPAA HelpDesk today. The resource for hearing aid professionals can be found at www.hearing.org/hipaa.

HIPAA has posed a definitional as well as a procedural challenge to the hearing aid industry. With a relatively low level of third party payment for hearing aids, manufacturers have struggled with determinations of their own compliance requirements as well as the desire to assist their customers. Announcing the site, HIA Chairman Jerry Ruzicka, Starkey Laboratories, explained, "In tackling this issue, we put our customers' concerns first. All manufacturers were getting the same questions and hearing the same concerns, so we have decided to do things together that will be easiest for our mutual customers. We want to ensure that we encourage sales rather than placing additional burdens on the process."

Visitors to the HIPAA HelpDesk will find three categories of assistance - standardized documents, articles and information links, and links to the HIPAA contact at each HIA member manufacturer. The HIPAA HelpDesk will be a dynamic site and, according to HIA Executive Director Carole Rogin, "HIA will constantly monitor compliance and industry actions relative to HIPAA, especially in this first year, and we will draw on experiences from other industries, as well. We hope that dispensers will join our HIA manufacturers at the site to make it a rich and current resource for the industry."

The first standardized document that visitors will find is a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) which has been endorsed by HIA manufacturing members, the American Academy of Audiology and the International Hearing Society. According to the schedule contained in the law, dispensers must have BAA's on file with each manufacturer with which they do business beginning April 14, 2003, while other aspects of the legislation have later compliance dates. Talking about the BAA, Mikael Worning, Oticon observed "We have worked closely with our manufacturing colleagues to develop an agreement that works well for dispensers and for manufacturers and that covers all the HIPAA privacy requirements. Our customers who use the HIA Business Associate Agreement will receive an immediate response from us as we have already signed off on the contents. We understand what the agreement states, we have already reviewed it, and we can sign it immediately."

"The HIA Business Associate Agreement is a clear advantage to both the dispenser and manufacturers. A dispenser saves time on both ends, not needing to waste effort developing their own BAA and not needing to negotiate with manufacturers over wording. In addition, BAA's are returned quickly. Manufacturers are spared the burden of detailed reading of multiple agreements and being bound to different conditions for different customers. The dispensers I have shared the HIA BAA concept with have been both grateful and delighted, said Ken Meyer of Starkey Laboratories, co-chair of the HIA task force that developed the HIPAA HelpDesk."

Ron Meltsner, Widex Hearing Aid Company explained "Using the HIA Business Associate agreement will ensure that you receive the quickest response from us in complying with the HIPAA act. In conjunction with our fellow manufacturers we have created this BAA and are confident that it will meet the needs of your customers as well as our needs as your Business Associate. Using this BAA will ensure that we at Widex will sign and enter into this Agreement immediately. If a different BAA is used, this will cause a delay as we will be required to review it and correspond with you on any necessary changes."

"With the new regulations coming out, we want to do what we can to make HIPAA compliance easier for our customers. A single, Business Associate Agreement that is endorsed by both manufacturer and dispensing organizations will make compliance to the HIPAA regulations easier for all of us. It will eliminate costly negotiations over the specific terms of the agreement. In addition, our customers can expect a fast response when they use the BAA we have endorsed," said Andy Raguskus, Sonic Innovations.

HIA is the trade association of the manufacturers of hearing aids, components and supplies. Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, HIA represents companies that produce over 90% of the hearing aids purchased by individuals with hearing losses in the United States on an annual basis.