XML HIPAA Schemas: Open Source Schemas Representing HIPAA Transactions Available From WPC

" Washington Publishing Company (WPC), publisher of electronic data interchange (EDI) transaction implementation guides adopted under HIPAA, has announced the release of W3C complaint XSD, Open Source Schemas, under the GNU license. Created directly from the same database as the federally mandated implementation guides, WPC schemas provide a single source for an XML representation of the HIPAA transaction standards.

The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) required the Department of Health and Human Services to establish national standards for electronic health care transactions. WPC's Open Source schemas are available for the following mandated transactions: health care claims, claim payment, remittance advice, coordination of benefits, claim status, enrollment, eligibility, premium payments, referral certification and authorization.

"Our goal is to simplify and improve applications currently using EDI," Steve Bass, WPC CEO stated. "The health care industry is under a large burden implementing the mandated transaction standards. WPC is helping by providing Open Source schemas to assist the industry moving forward with XML implementations. The schemas provide an open option for organizations wishing to use HIPAA data in their applications via XML."

XML Open Source schemas are useful to any developer or organization interested in using XML to represent or process HIPAA EDI data. In contrast to other isomorphic XML representations of EDI, the schemas are modeled after the implementation guide structure providing a rich XML content model. As HIPAA transaction standards change, WPC will add to this open set of XML schemas."

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Look, this reveals how wrongheaded and duplicitous HIPAA is....individuals who actually have their health information stored somewhere, are NOT going to be requesting their health records be made available to THEM via XML...thus, it begs the question, "Who is this database intended for?" . Not me, not you. This database is intended for governmental and corporate users, and that shows just who this whole "Protecting your medical records" crap is a SHAM.