My husband is a nurse anesthetist with his own corporation that contracts out for anesthesia services. In the mail today he received a letter dated Jan. 12, 1999 from HCFA.(Health Care Financing Adm.) The first two paragraphs give a brief explanation of the Year 2000 computer problem, or the "Y2K bug." The third paragraph states, "As Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), I need to make sure you are aware of some key points: HCFA will be ready to process acceptable claims. We have made substantial progress in correcting our own systems in recent months and, despite earlier concerns, we will be ready on time. We are confident that all Medicare claims processes will be ready and able to function come January 1, 2000, so that you can be paid promptly." The second paragraph begins: "You must also be ready if you wish to be paid promptly." And says that it is,"urgent that you act now." The third paragraph states, "Your entire practice and facility must be ready." This document was signed by Nancy-Ann Min DeParle. Contrast that with the report, January 20, 1999, that appears at: http://www.house.gov/reform/gmit/hearings/testimony/990120jw.htm In September 1998 "it was concluded that it was highly unlikely that all of the Medicare systems would be compliant in time to ensure the delivery of uninterrupted benefits and services into the year 2000." Do you suppose that a miracle occurred or that it is simply more expedient to be "y2k ready" than y2k compliant?

Y2K PUZZLED????

-- Carol Dufrene (jdufrene@laci.net), January 24, 1999

Answers

Carol, the Federal governments introspective look at y2k has been and will continue to be an attempt at mass deception. This will continue until they can no longer deceive the public. At that time they will have to make a decision with regard to rationing, martial law and control of banks.

Ray

-- Ray (rayl@whc.net), January 24, 1999.

Has anyone in the health care field, who depends on Medicare payments from HCFA, considered the possibility that HCFA is not really "ready" for Jan 1, 2000, but is trying to set up a smoke screen to blame their lack of payments after that date on the health care providers instead of themselves??????? About 8 yrs ago, I worked in a nursing home office, part of my responsiblilty was seeing that the Medicare claims got filed and paid.......HCFA is not the most organized or easiest of vendors to work with, to say the least !!!!!!

Re-read the letter your husband received, and think about what I've suggested........They are telling you "they" are "ready", but that if you expect prompt payment, that "YOU" must be "READY". They may very well be trying to pass the buck to the "providers" for their "lack of compliancy".........

Sandy

-- Paul & Sandy Stambaugh (patches96@worldnet.att.net), January 24, 1999.

According to this January 11 article, "...it is unlikely that all HCFA systems will be ready in time."

http://www.ntgov.com/gcn/gcn/1999/january11/13a.htm

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 24, 1999.

"we will be ready on time. We are confident..." (Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, Administrator, HCFA, 12 Jan 1999.

What else can the lady say? "It don' mean nuthin'," as some of the folks here like to say.

Maxim 23: Never believe a rumor until it's officially denied.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 24, 1999.

Sandy, Your theory seems pretty plausible to me. In Alan Greenspan's congressional testimony in late 1998, he said that the thought the Federal Reserve Bank's programs were not going to cause any problems, but he said that he was concerned about the problem of corrupted data received from non-compliant institutions. If I recall Greenspan's testimony right, he gave the impression that they should be able to handle a limited amount of bad data but that too much would overwhelm them. Please note that is just my impression from reading the testimony.

I can't reconcile the HCFA statements, but it may be just as you postulate. Maybe they learned something from listening to Greenspan. HCFA can assume that it's going to get some corrupted data from sources outside HCFA, so why not just set up the outsiders to take the blame for crashing HCFA's system?

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), January 24, 1999.

Methinks this is the new standardized, one-size-fits-all Y2K copout mantra: "We were Y2K ready but our customer wasn't fully compliant and corrupted the data exchange."

Therefore, no liability! However in the world could they prove who is the source of the failed data exchange??

-- (puddytat@canary.com), January 25, 1999.

I posted that GCN link to another list that I'm on, and got a rather interesting response. It seems that a lot of physicians get a fair percentage of their income from HCFA payments. If HCFA doesn't come through with the money, many physicians and medical groups may not be able to pay their own bills.

want a y2k ripple effect to consider? what happens to the healthcare system in this country when doctors start declaring bankruptcy?

interesting thought, eh? Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 25, 1999.