Legal Definition of Clearinghouse

See full definition of clearinghouse in the English Language Learners Dictionary Commentators at the Information Centre, on the other hand, agreed with our proposal, including the exemption and the provision that the exemption is invalid if the company has direct contact with individuals. They also stated that a health care clearinghouse that is in direct contact with people is no longer a health care information clearing house as defined and should be subject to all the requirements of the regulation. “Clearinghouse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clearinghouse. Retrieved 7 January 2022. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article on the Nglish clearing-house mechanism: Translation of the clearing-house mechanism for Spanish speakers In the NPRM, we defined the Health Care Clearinghouse as a public or private entity that processes or facilitates the processing of non-standard data elements of health information into standard data elements. The Company receives healthcare transactions from healthcare providers or other entities, translates the data from a specific format into a format acceptable to the intended payer(s), and transmits the processed transaction to the appropriate payers and clearing houses. Billing services, price repricing companies, municipal health management information systems, municipal health information systems, and “value-added” networks and switches would have been considered health information centres for the purposes of this Part if they performed the functions of health care information centres described in the preceding sentences. Answer: As a general rule, if a clearing house creates or receives protected health information as a business partner of another covered entity, we retain the exemption for clearing-house centers from certain provisions of the regulation dealing with the publication of information practices and direct access rights of the patient to access, copy and modify records (§§ 164.524 and 164.526), on the grounds that a health care clearing house conducts business-to-business transactions and does not deal directly with individuals. In addition, healthcare clearing houses, as counterparties to plans and providers, are bound by opinions on the disclosure practices of covered entities with which they contract. Let`s say a trader buys a futures contract. At this point, the clearing house has already established the initial margin and maintenance margin requirements. The derivatives market is highly dependent on the clearing house because its financial products are leveraged. That is, they usually involve borrowing to invest, a process that requires a stable intermediary.

In this example, the clearing house has ensured that there is enough money in the account to cover any losses that the account holder may incur during trading. Once the trade is closed, the remaining margin funds are released for the trader. Answer: We cannot extend the definition of “health care information clearing house” to companies that do not meet the definition of this term in the articles of association. In the final regulations, we are making a number of changes to reflect public comments on the definition. We are changing the definition of the health care clearing house to match the definition published in the transaction rule (with the addition of some words as mentioned above). We clarify in the preamble that, although the term `health care clearing-house mechanism` may have different meanings and connotations in other contexts, for the purposes of this Regulation, an entity is considered to be a clearing house for healthcare information only to the extent that it actually meets the criteria of our definition. Companies that perform other functions but do not meet the criteria of a health care clearinghouse are not clearing houses, although they may be business partners. Settlement services are included in the regulatory definition of “health care information centre” if they perform the specified functions of the information centre.

While we have not added or removed any entities from our original definition, we will monitor industry practices and may add more in the future as changes occur in the health care system. Comment: Several commentators, including major clearing houses and their professional associations, have suggested that we do not treat healthcare clearing houses as a dual role as an affected entity and counterparty in the final rule, as such a dual role creates confusion as to which rules actually apply to clearing houses. In their view, the definition of the health clearing-house mechanism is sufficiently clear to identify a health care clearing-house mechanism as a covered entity and to allow health care clearing-house centres to operate under a single regulation. Response: We clarify that companies that act as simple and routine communication channels and information carriers, such as telephone companies and Internet service providers, are not clearing houses within the meaning of the rule, unless they perform the functions described in our definition. We also clarify that value-added networks and intermediaries are not clearinghouses for healthcare information unless they perform the functions described in the definition and specify that these companies can be trading partners if they comply with the definition of the Regulation. Comment: Most of the comments on healthcare clearing-house mechanisms related to our proposal to exempt healthcare clearing-house centres from the provisions of the Regulation on rights of access and notification to patients. In our NPRM, we proposed exempting health care clearing houses from certain provisions of the regulation relating to the publication of the information practices of affected companies and the rights of consumers to access, copy and modify their records. The rationale for this exemption was based on our belief that health care clearing houses primarily engage in business-to-business transactions and do not establish or maintain direct relationships with individuals. We proposed this position on the condition that the exemptions be null and void for any health care information centre that has direct contact with individuals in a capacity other than that of a trading partner. In addition, we noted that, in most cases, clearing houses are also considered counterparties for the purposes of this rule and are bound by their covered plan and supplier contracts.

They would also be subject to publication of disclosure practices developed by plans and the providers with whom they contract. The clearing house comes into play after a buyer and seller have executed a transaction. His task is to carry out the steps that complete the transaction and thus validate it. As an intermediary, the clearing house provides the security and efficiency essential to the stability of a financial market. Response: For the reasons explained in section 164.504 of this Preamble, we do not create an exception to the trading partner requirements if the trading partner is also a covered entity. We maintain the concept that a healthcare clearing house can be a covered entity and a counterparty to a covered entity within the meaning of the Regulation. As trading partners, they would be bound by their contracts with the covered schemes and providers. Health care information exchange body: a public or private entity, including a billing service, a repricing company, a municipal health management information system or a municipal health information system, as well as “value-added networks and switches”, which performs any of the following functions: As a general rule, we talk about transaction risk and avoid the intervention of a clearing house. Each exchange has its own clearing house.

All members of an exchange are required to settle their trades through the clearing house at the end of each trading session and deposit with the clearing house a sum of money based on the clearing house`s margin requirements and sufficient to cover the member`s debit balance.