American Medical Association "Red flags" rule compliance date pushed to
August 1, 2009

Date:   05/06/2009

Largely as a result of AMA advocacy, physician practices now have until Aug. 1 to comply with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) "red flags" rule, which requires physicians to institute policies to identify, detect and respond to potential risks of identity theft.

The rule originally was to have taken effect today, May 1, but the FTC voted on April 30 to delay the compliance date for three months. The AMA will use this time to convince the FTC and Congress that physicians are not "creditors" and therefore should not be subject to the rule.

"We will continue to make the case to FTC that they should republish the rule so that we have an opportunity to formally comment and state our objections to physician inclusion in the program," AMA Board of Trustees member Ardis Hoven, MD, said.

Provider Action:

Visit the AMA's Practice Management Center Web site at www.ama-assn.org/go/pmc to access the following resources:

• Red Flags Rule Guidance Document
• Sample Policy
• Other "red flags" rule-realted resources from the AMA PMC.