According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Health Plans Cannot Require Electric Fund Transfer Use

According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), health plans can not force providers seeking electronic remittance advice for health care claims to accept payments through an electronic fund transfer.

The rule on EFT applies to the HIPAA-mandated 835 remittance advice transaction. According to the guidance, “The plan may not require that the provider accept an EFT as a condition of using the 835. A business decision to only pay via EFT and to require providers to accept EFT versus paper checks should be negotiated and executed independent of the HIPAA transactions.”

You can find more information on HIPAA transactions and code sets rule in a new guidance on http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2/regulations/transactions/default.asp