ASC X12/HIPAA Enveloping Overview
A document envelope consists of control information that enables organizations to exchange messages effectively. This information is added in headers and trailers to messages. Document envelopes are specific to the message standard used. Creating document envelopes is necessary to use ASC X12 with your trading partners.
During the envelope creation process, you assign the envelope name, description, and parameters, such as unique identification numbers (control numbers).
Envelope Structure
ITXA supports the use of many EDI protocols, including ASC X12. The ASC X12 protocol has three levels of envelopes:
- Interchange
- This outermost layer contains an interchange header and trailer and all the data sent from one sender to one receiver in the same transmission.
- Group
- The middle layer contains a group header and trailer that surrounds a group of transaction sets of the same type.
- Transaction
- The innermost layer contains the standard message surrounded by a header and trailer record.
Inbound and outbound envelopes
Envelope parameters specify whether the document is inbound or outbound:
- Inbound envelopes identify documents that come into SPE so they can be properly routed. Inbound envelopes also give you the option to translate documents when you choose to check documents for compliance.
- Outbound envelopes identify documents so that they can be sent to and received by trading partners.