This chapter is about the electronic data interchange (EDI) requirements that HIPAA has defined. While necessarily more abstract than privacy or security issues, these equirements are the backbone of achieving the administrative simplification goals of the law. When they are fully implemented in the health care industry, exchange of information will be faster, more efficient, and more accurate.

Allied health personnel work with electronic transactions such as health care claims and insurance verification in many positions. They also work with the diagnosis and procedure codes that are used to communicate the reasons for patient services and also are studied to improve health care. For these reasons, a core understanding of the transactions, code sets, and national identifiers requirements is essential.