BOSTON, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Crosscheck Networks, Inc., today announced a first-to-market simulation and testing solution to help healthcare IT organizations ensure compliance with the latest Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates. Available immediately, the company's new SOAPSonar and CloudPort Healthcare Suite empowers healthcare entities to conform to Version 5010, and seamlessly migrate to ICD-10 code sets.

As of January 1, 2012, all healthcare providers, payers and clearinghouses that conduct business electronically must transition from the prior HIPAA standard, Version 4010/4010A, to Version 5010. Moreover, this upgrade is a prerequisite to accommodate the conversion from ICD-9 to ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS code sets, which allow for greater diagnostic and procedural coding flexibility.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society noted when it was first introduced that HIPAA 5010 represented "… an opportunity to substantially reduce administrative costs and increase efficiency. In fact, the net financial benefits to the industry could reach $33.8 billion, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). However, realizing these benefits is dependent on fully implementing the standard and increasing provider usage of electronic transactions."[1]

"It's clear from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introducing a '90-day period of enforcement discretion for compliance with new HIPAA transaction standards,' as well as the HHS announcing its 'intent to delay ICD-10 compliance date' that many healthcare providers are increasingly challenged with meeting 5010 compliance, and preparing for the ICD-10 transition. Not surprisingly, readying for Version 5010 and ICD-10 are prevailing themes at this week's HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition," said Mamoon Yunus, CEO of Crosscheck Networks. "Timed with the industry's premier healthcare IT conference, we are introducing valuable tools that serve as a project framework for testing and validating – before going live – that EDI trading partners are in compliance with HIPAA standards and that vital healthcare business processes – claims processing, authorizations, enrollment – are accelerated without disruption."

EDI-, SOA-, XML- and REST-based services are the foundation of today's high transaction-oriented healthcare organizations. As such, real-world, intensive testing of these services – ensuring trading partners can conduct business transactions concurrently and without issues – is essential.

SOAPSonar provides modes for functional, multi-client performance, compliance and security testing of EDI-, SOAP-, XML- and REST-based services. New capabilities now allow healthcare IT entities to validate that their underlying service infrastructures comply with exacting HIPAA regulations – prior to deployment.

A first-of-its-kind simulation tool, CloudPort enables development and QA teams to test/mimic services in the cloud and data centers prior to implementation. Enterprises benefit by never having to touch production code, while eliminating the substantial time, capital and IT staff resource expenses related to building a distinct cloud test environment.

Building upon these industry-leading capabilities, CloudPort's healthcare functionality allows it to simulate the behavior of a Managed File Transfer (MFT) gateway. Developers now have the dynamic ability to emulate all EDI transactions – including claim submissions, claim status requests and responses, referral/authorization requests and responses, eligibility/benefit requests and responses, and claim remittances – prior to implementation. With CloudPort, test teams can validate – independent of protocol – that integration partner documents are formatted and exchanged in accordance with Version 5010 and ICD-10 standards.

Eliminating the need for healthcare IT to develop any custom code, key new capabilities in the SOAPSonar and CloudPort Healthcare Suite include:

• HIPAA 4010 and 5010 Testing, Simulation and Validation Support;
• ICD-9 and ICD-10 Conversion and Mapping;
• Protocol Support for FTP, sFTP, HTTP, HTTPs, AS2, JMS, Tibco EMS and IBM MQ Series;
• Bi-Directional EDI Validation Engine; and
• Support for HL7v3 with Schematrons.

[1] Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society: "HIPAA 5010: A Second Chance for the Industry to Implement Transaction Standards to Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency," by HIMSS Financial Systems Advocacy & Public Comment Work Group, February 2009

About Crosscheck Networks

Crosscheck Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary, Forum Systems, deliver solutions for deploying robust, resilient, secure and reliable Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The company's integrated, holistic product suite streamlines and optimizes resources throughout the SOA life cycle, ensuring reduced time-to-market and more rapid return on investment. Recognized as a technology innovator and security leader, Crosscheck Networks is the only company that has been granted a patent for its Forum Sentry XML Gateway and has been certified by NIST and the U.S. Department of Defense. Crosscheck Networks is also the only company with HP Enterprise Management Alliance Program (EMAP) certification for SOA testing with native HP Quality Center Integration. For more information, please visit www.crosschecknet.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Crosscheck Networks, Inc.