Phase III ERA EFT: CORE 360 Uniform Use of CARC & RARC Rule

The Implementation of Phase III CORE 360 CARCs and RARCs rule – version 3.0.3 has been for A/B Medicare administrative contractors has been delayed to May 5, 2014.

To promote implementation of electronic transactions and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvements, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates the adoption of a set of operating rules for each of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) transactions. The ACA defines operating rules and specifies the role of operating rules in relation to the standards. Phase III Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) CORE Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) & Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Operating Rule Set must be implemented by January 1, 2014.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adopted the Phase III Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) CORE Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) & Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Operating Rule Set that must be implemented by January 1, 2014, under the Affordable Care Act. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) amended the Act by adding Part C—Administrative Simplification—to Title XI of the Social Security Act, requiring the Secretary of HHS (the Secretary) to adopt standards for certain transactions to enable health information to be exchanged more efficiently, and to achieve greater uniformity in the transmission of health information. 

More recently, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) reported to the Congress that the transition to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) from paper has been slow and disappointing. Through the Affordable Care Act, Congress sought to promote implementation of electronic transactions and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvements by creating more uniformity in the implementation of standard transactions. 

This was done by mandating the adoption of a set of operating rules for each of the HIPAA transactions. The Affordable Care Act defines operating rules and specifies the role of operating rules in relation to the standards. 

CAQH CORE published Code Combination Version 3.0.3 on October 1, 2013. This update is based on July, 2013 CARC and RARC updates as posted at the WPC website. You may review these updates at: http://www.wpc-edi.com/reference for CARC and RARC updates and http://www.caqh.org/CORECodeCombinations.php for CAQH CORE defined code combination updates.