ASC X12 Implementation Acknowledgement (999) (CAQH CORE Certification)
ASC X12 Implementation Acknowledgement (999) must be always returned by CORE-certified organizations. The organization must successfully complete all of the required certification test scripts required by the Phase II CAQH CORE Certification Test Suite to become CORE-certified.
The ASC X12 Implementation Acknowledgement (999) can be used only to acknowledge receipt, acceptance or rejection of X12 transaction sets. It is not designed to be able to report receipt and/or errors, etc. in a proprietary file format. Thus it cannot be used to acknowledge receipt of a non-X12 transaction set.
The 20-second requirement described in the CAQH CORE 156 and 250 Rules is the duration for the entire round-trip of the transaction. The 20 seconds begin when the X12 270 Inquiry or X12 276 Request is first submitted, and ends when the X12 271 Response or X12 277 Response is delivered to the provider. All ensuing hops are included in these 20 seconds. Conformance with the rule is determined when 90 percent of all required responses are returned within the specified maximum response time as measured within a calendar month. Each HIPAA-covered entity is required to conform to the Federally mandated CAQH CORE Eligibility & Claim Status Operating Rules. Each HIPAA covered entity within the transaction flow is bound by the CAQH CORE Rule requirements for meeting the 20-second round trip of the transaction (CAQH CORE recommends no more than 4 seconds per hop).
The CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule requires that the connection remain open for 60 seconds to accommodate any potentially delayed responses. In the event that a specific real time response message is not received within the 20-second window, the requirements described in CAQH CORE 270 Rule, Section 4.3.6, Response, Timeout and Retransmission Requirements, would apply.
NOTE: The CAQH CORE 156 and 250 Rules require that 90 percent of all X12 271 and X12 277 responses be returned within the 20-second maximum response time within a calendar month to be in conformance with the rule requirements.