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IHIMA Tracks for You!
9th Edition 2015
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IHIMA President’s Message
WE DID IT!!! Finally after years of work and anticipation, October 1, 2015 marks one of the most notable events in HIM history – the day ICD-10 was officially implemented! Kudos to all of you that wrote letters, tweeted, sent texts and hashtags, contacted your legislators and beat the pavement to ensure the momentum and urgency surrounding this magnificent movement stayed present. The best part is, the fun has only just begun! Now that we have this new methodology in place, it will be incumbent upon the HIM industry to keep fighting; keep talking; keep ICD-10 at the forefront of every conversation, every decision, every meeting. What we do with the data we’ll be collecting over the next twelve months will shape how financial and clinical decisions are made into the future. While I fully realize there will be several iterations of this ‘new normal’ – I also fully understand, the codes we submit today will shape our tomorrow. As such, we have continue doing the very best job we can to make sure the stories we tell using those codes are accurate and complete. I have every confidence that we will be successful – our detail oriented, engaging mindset has put us in the right place to achieve greatness! Best of luck with your Post ICD-10 implementation plans, and may you survive and conquer the continued challenges!
Nicole Harper
IHIMA President 2015-2016
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TRACK 1: Education
Notes from the 2015 AHIMA Convention in New Orleans
All five Delegates from Indiana were in attendance at the House of Delegates in New Orleans. We provided feedback around delegate and member engagement. We had extremely interactive sessions where we attempted to update the definition of HIM. No easy feat in this changing landscape and diverse workforce! Thus why the theme of the convention was "HIM Without Walls". Here are a few of the things I heard:
- AHIMA has a global presence in training HIM workforces. Did you know that 95% of the world's population is NOT in the United States?
- AHIMA has received a massive grant from the Department of Labor to create an apprenticeship program.
- We need to make our own seat at the table. Don't wait to be invited.
- Information Governance continues to be refined to rein in the overwhelming influx of information now available to us.
- Data analysis is the place to be. If you have any interest in this field, start taking steps today to learn as much as you can about it.
- There is still a huge demand for coding professionals. The exhibit hall was filled with companies looking for coders, auditors, and compliance specialists.
LHIMA was a great host, treating us to a gospel choir on opening day. Everybody was on their feet clapping along. We, of course took in the culture and hospitality of the city in our off hours. Thankfully there was a lot of walking to balance the amazing food. I met so many people and look forward to keeping them as contacts. If you ever get the opportunity to go to the AHIMA annual meeting it is well worth it!! Next year it is in October in Baltimore. If you would like any more details about the points above, where to get more information, or how to get more actively involved in the association, let me know!
Susan Clark
shouck@padrino.org
If you did not or have not attended the AHIMA National Conference, you do not know what you are missing!! I have attended before but this year was in New Orleans and I will admit it was my favorite to date! On Monday, with its opening session you could not miss Liz Jazwiec, R.N. with her “Eat. The. Cookie”! It was both hysterical and enlightening! She has a book by the same name and I truly think her sarcasm and positivity is something we could all use. Monday had some fantastic speakers but if you missed it there was also an Indiana University Alumni Reception with great food, good drinks and people connecting that had not in a while. This was the first one in a few years so it is good to get them rolling again! Tuesday had many great speakers on leaderships and building great teams! There were so many choices that it was truly hard to figure out where you wanted to be more. There was a new set up this year that even had a focus on Education and Educators which was fantastic for some that are trying to train or educate. As usual, the Exhibitor Hall was beautifully massive - it would literally take you hours to go through, not to mention the excess swag available to fit in your suit case! Tuesday night was closed with an amazing “Mardi Gras World” party! They even had the “Parade Line” with the local Marching Band and amazing floats going directly through the party! This of course was topped by the band, drinks in cups with flashing neon lights and the local southern food.
Wednesday many were leaving early since it closed out at 1:30. We hope you did not miss the presenters because there was some great information on “Building a Robust Coding Audit” which will be even more important now that we have ICD-10 in motion. It is so exciting to be a part of the change and on that cusp. You could feel the excitement as the change was here. This year’s conference was amazing so if you have the option you should start planning now for the Baltimore Maryland conference October 15-19. Be a part of the change, join us in Baltimore!
Lisa Desnoyers, HIM Program Director, IUPUI
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Spotlight: FHIR
Health Level 7’s newest standard is named Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource, or FHIR. It is a way to transfer data across healthcare that is easier to program and is expected to provide access to discrete data. FHIR’s scope includes public health, clinical research, multi-venue patient care and administrative/financial processes. Every major EHR vendor is very enthusiastic about FHIR and its potential benefits, however it is still a draft standard. Learn more about FHIR.
Tuesday afternoon at the AHIMA National Convention featured a session on enabling functional interoperability in healthcare, in which a joint initiative by AHIMA and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) to create standards for effective use of EHR systems was presented. AHIMA and IHE have published a white paper “HIT Standards for HIM Practices” which describes the cross-collaboration between HIM professionals, standards developers, and HIT vendors to support HIM operations for the use of electronic health information.
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Information Governance (IG) Update
During Tuesday’s General Session at the AHIMA National Convention in New Orleans, Information Governance was presented as the new ROI – Return on Information – by incoming President Melissa Martin RHIA, CCS, CHTS-IM, and as an imperative for healthcare by Deborah Green MBA, RHIA, AHIMA’s Executive Vice President and chief innovation and global services officer. A new survey by AHIMA and Cohasset Associates shows the industry is making progress towards adoption of IG, with 38% of respondents reporting that IG is included in their organization’s strategic objectives.
According to Green “IG is not a project, it is a structured means of treating information as the strategic asset it is”. The hope is that AHIMA will be synonymous with IG and IG will be synonymous with AHIMA.
See AHIMA Today for more details, and for a free instant assessment tool from AHIMA that provides a quick check of your organization's IG maturity level, go to www.IGIQ.com.
AHIMA has also developed an IG Toolkit for member reference. The toolkit was reviewed for publication by IHIMA Board member and Delegate Susan Clark whose name is listed in the Acknowledgements on Page 1. Thank you Susan!
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Upcoming IG Summit
Be at the forefront of Information Governance (IG) when you attend Information Governance: The Value Proposition – A Thought Leadership Summit.Save $100 through October 30 when you use coupon code IGSUM15 at checkout.
Interact with industry experts and your peers by participating in thought-provoking exchanges at lively roundtables, town halls, and panel discussions. Attend sessions on a range of topics including: Where Data Governance and Information Governance Meet; Transforming Theory into Reality; Navigating the Transition to Information Governance and leave with ideas to apply to your own organization. And don’t miss Lorraine Fernandes, RHIA, an evangelist for IBM’s Watson Health, who will share her thoughts about cloud and cognitive computing as the next frontier for IG. Remember to use coupon code IGSUM15 to save $100 at checkout (only through October 30).
REGISTER NOW
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New HIPAA Online Course
Unravel HIPAA with AHIMA’s new online course. HIPAA’s complexity makes it one of the most difficult regulations to understand. This new, three-part, interactive, online course series points out HIPAA’s key components, shows how the various parts of the regulation work together, and explains the regulation in easy to comprehend terms. Learn more and preview the courses.
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On Demand Learning Sessions from IHIMA and KnowledgeConnex
For online educational offerings available, please go to: www.knowledgeconnex.com/LearningPortal/ondemandeducation.html
Earn your CEUs right from your home or work computer! Be sure to say you “heard about it from IHIMA!”
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TRACK 2: Legislation
Action Alert from Indiana Hospital Association
Reps. Sam Graves (R-MO) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) have introduced the Medicare Audit Improvement Act of 2015 (H.R. 2156), a bill that would make much-needed improvements to the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program.
Among other measures, the bill would:
- Eliminate the RAC contingency fee structure. Instead, the bill would direct CMS to pay RACs a flat fee, as every other Medicare contractor is paid, to reduce the financial incentive for overzealous auditing practices
- Establish a consistent and transparent methodology to calculate RACs' total appeals overturn rates
- Rationalize payments to RACs by lowering payments for poor RAC performance due to high rates of incorrect denials
- Fix CMS's unfair rebilling rules by allowing hospitals to rebill claims when appropriate
- Require RACs to make their inpatient claims decisions using the same information the physician had when treating the patient, not information that becomes available after the patient leaves the hospital
Please contact your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor the bill. It is critical that we get as many co-sponsors as possible.
We ask that you enter your home address and hospital address. For future action alerts you won’t need to re-enter this information, as it will be saved in the system.
Please note that Reps. Todd Rokita (CD-4) and Luke Messer (CD-6) have already co-sponsored the bill. If you or your hospital are in their districts, the tool will automatically generate a message to thank them for their support.
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TRACK 3: ICD-10 Updates
Information provided by: AHIMA E-Alerts and CodeWrite, and other sources
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Interim Advice on Excludes Notes
NCHS posted interim advice on their website on October 16, that addresses circumstances where some conditions included in Excludes 1 notes should be allowed to both be coded, and thus might be more appropriate for an Excludes 2 note. Due to a partial code freeze, changes to Excludes notes or revisions to the official coding guidelines cannot be made until next October.
We have received several questions regarding the interpretation of Excludes1 notes in ICD-10-CM when the conditions are unrelated to one another.
Answer: If the two conditions are not related to one another, it is permissible to report both codes despite the presence of an Excludes1 note. For example, the Excludes1 note at code range R40-R46, states that symptoms and signs constituting part of a pattern of mental disorder (F01-F99) cannot be assigned with the R40-R46 codes. However, if dizziness (R42) is not a component of the mental health condition (e.g., dizziness is unrelated to bipolar disorder), then separate codes may be assigned for both dizziness and bipolar disorder. In another example, code range I60-I69 (Cerebrovascular Diseases) has an Excludes1 note for traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (S06.-). Codes in I60-I69 should not be used for a diagnosis of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage. However, if the patient has both a current traumatic intracranial hemorrhage and sequela from a previous stroke, then it would be appropriate to assign both a code from S06- and I69-.
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ICD-10 Rollout Information
Sid Hebert, head of the ICD-10 implementation team at insurer Humana, tells Forbes that the switch to ICD-10 "has been a pretty smooth transition so far... Almost everyone who is submitting claims is getting it right," he says. UnitedHealth Group, the country's largest health insurer, says, "claims are being paid and call volumes from providers have been "normal," with what it called only a "slight uptick" in claim denials. "If there were large health plans not ready," Robert Tennant, the Medical Group Management Association's health information technology policy director, told the magazine, "we would've found that out by now."
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Answers to Physician Coding Challenges
AHIMA's new Physician Coding Toolkit was developed in response to the unique challenges HIM professionals face daily in a provider practice work environment, specifically in coding. The toolkit provides multiple resources and valuable tools to help provider practices of any size successfully navigate through today's complex healthcare environment. It includes information defining the specific code sets used in provider practice, coding guidelines, EHR and documentation enhancements, provider coding workflow, professional coder development, a sample policy and procedure template, and more.
The toolkit is available to AHIMA members from the Body of Knowledge.
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Mentors Needed
In the October issue of CodeWrite, Cathy Brownfield’s editorial imperative is timely. “Currently the demand for coders is extremely high, making it more important than ever for new coders to enter our industry. Many of us are asked "How do I get into coding?" Then we see posts on message boards from students who just graduated that say they can't find a job because they have no experience. Now is the time for all of us to rally behind these new graduates and support them. We need to find opportunities for mentoring and training that will allow them to work alongside us. We need to encourage those who are interested in becoming coders and also offer to mentor them throughout their journey.” Read the full post.
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AHIMA'S Code-Check™
AHIMA's Code-Check™ is a subscription service assisting professionals in accurately assigning codes through person-to-person guidance and demonstration of the appropriate search pathways necessary for the most accurate code assignment. Code-Check provides users with the unique ability to ask ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, CPT, or HCPCS questions. Save 10 percent through October 31 with coupon code AHIMASAVE10.
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CMS
Check out new and updated resources for ICD-10 post implementation, on the CMS website:
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/ProviderResources.html
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More Resources to Help Educate Physicians on ICD-10
http://www.ahima.org/topics/icd10/physicians
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TRACK 4:
Other News & Important Info
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Don't Miss the October Issue of AHIMA Advantage
The October issue of AHIMA's online member newsletter, AHIMA Advantage, discusses how HIM professionals can lend their expertise to the latest innovations in healthcare. The October issue also looks at AHIMA's new apprenticeship program, offers job-search tips for new graduates, and introduces a new white paper on the value of AHIMA certifications.
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Healthcare IT Blog Roll
According to Health Data Management, these are the 25 Healthcare IT Blogs You Should be Reading.
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Millenial-Friendly Meetings
The Event Garde blog describes the changes in the workplace brought by the current majority of the workforce, the millennial generation or “Gen Y”. According to this post, Skype meetings and coffee shop conversations have replaced hours-long meetings. However while millennials crave technology they also crave face-to-face meetings and understand the importance of networking. Read more here.
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Looking?
Check out our Job Board at www.ihima.org/him-careers/job-board/ to see job opportunities posted!
November 5 from 1-4 p.m. ET, participate in the AHIMA Career Assist Virtual Career Fair.
Employers at this year's event will include LexiCode, MModal, and Health Information Associates, among others. Registration is free, but space is limited.
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Save the Date!
October 30 Applications for the AHIMA Consumer Engagement Toolkit Task Force are due. The toolkit will promote the patient's role in improving the quality of health information throughout the care continuum and improvement of data integrity through health literacy.
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ICD-10 Refresher Course
Information Governance: The Value Proposition November 12-13, Chicago, IL
November 16 Employers, attend a webinar on the AHIMA Foundation's "Managing the Talent Pipeline in Health Information" apprenticeship program. Learn about apprenticeships, how they operate, and how to become an apprenticeship employer mentor. Register now.
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Notice
Is there a current topic in HIM you hope will be covered in an upcoming AHIMA newsletter? Tell them about it. Send an e-mail with your suggestion, and you'll be entered into a quarterly drawing for a $50 gift card.
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Connect with IHIMA
On LinkedIn: IHIMA HIM
On Twitter: @IHIMA HIM
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Have You Visited AHIMA’S Engage Communities?
Visit AHIMA's Engage Online Communities for discussions and content on topics important to HIM professionals. Have a membership-related question? Visit the AHIMA Membership and Business community.
And don't forget Engage has a mobile app. Scan the QR code on the Engage home page, or download it from iTunes or the Google Play store.
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Thank You for Reading!
Newsletter developed by:
Amy Camp RHIA, CCS
IHIMA Communications Chair
Email: amy.camp@omnicityusa.com
Website: www.ihima.org
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