Hi folks! Just joined the forum and this is my very first post. I'm not sure if you could call this a question, an observation, or just a gripe, but here it is.
For the past two years, I've been doing a lot of contract work for various organizations, most of it in the realm of EDI (Mapping, programming, administration, etc). Since most of these contracts seem to average 6-8 months, I'm constantly on the hunt for the next project. What I'm finding is that it is not easy at all to pick up HIPAA-related EDI jobs if you have primarily been working with B2B transaction sets. That's a shame because there seem to be a lot of HIPAA EDI jobs out there, especially in my area of the US. I've managed to snag a couple of them, but employers seem to want to see more work with those specific transaction sets. I've got about 8 years experience with EDI in toto, but almost all of it is with B2B (850, 855, 810, 856, etc). It's getting a bit frustrating.
My thought on this is that data is data, regardless of the tools used. Is there really any fundamental difference in mapping or creating transaction sets between the two types? Is the looping structure of, say, an 834 really any different or more complex than an 856? And what would be the best way to overcome this when seeking new projects?
I'm not sure if anyone else here has run into the same problems. There may very well be real reasons for this that I'm unaware of, but in either case, I'd welcome your thoughts/opinions on this.
Thanks,
Chris
For the past two years, I've been doing a lot of contract work for various organizations, most of it in the realm of EDI (Mapping, programming, administration, etc). Since most of these contracts seem to average 6-8 months, I'm constantly on the hunt for the next project. What I'm finding is that it is not easy at all to pick up HIPAA-related EDI jobs if you have primarily been working with B2B transaction sets. That's a shame because there seem to be a lot of HIPAA EDI jobs out there, especially in my area of the US. I've managed to snag a couple of them, but employers seem to want to see more work with those specific transaction sets. I've got about 8 years experience with EDI in toto, but almost all of it is with B2B (850, 855, 810, 856, etc). It's getting a bit frustrating.
My thought on this is that data is data, regardless of the tools used. Is there really any fundamental difference in mapping or creating transaction sets between the two types? Is the looping structure of, say, an 834 really any different or more complex than an 856? And what would be the best way to overcome this when seeking new projects?
I'm not sure if anyone else here has run into the same problems. There may very well be real reasons for this that I'm unaware of, but in either case, I'd welcome your thoughts/opinions on this.
Thanks,
Chris