Electronic Funds Transfer is a final rule and is now in effect

An announcement was posted on July 11, 2012 at cms.gov that clarifies that the Interim Final Rule (IFC) they published in January 2012, proposing the adoption of standards for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is a final rule and is now in effect. The compliance date for all covered entities is January 1, 2014. The announcement explains that "after careful review and consideration of over 50 comments we received during the 60-day public comment period, CMS decided not to change any of the policies in CMS-0024-IFC" and that "industry implementation efforts should be underway. " The announcement also refers the reader to FAQs on the EFT standards that are on the CMS website.

This announcement is very similar to the one released for the IFC adopting operating rules for the Eligibility and Claim Status transactions following consideration of public comments received after its publication.

This CMS notification is to make sure you are not waiting for the publication of a separate final rule on the Health Care EFT Standards before beginning implementation efforts if the rule applies to your organization. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does not have plans to publish a final rule, as this is not required of IFC’s when policies are not changed. Please share this notice with your colleagues and anyone else you think might benefit from the information.