December 4, 2019
CHIA Webinars on Demand for the Busy HIM Professional
CHIA understands the busy demands of health information professionals today, and has the convenient solution for those who want to stay connected to HIM education and earn continuing education.  

CHIA Webinars on Demand is the complete package, consisting of the recorded webinar presentation, handout and CEUs. Webinars on Demand are available for separate purchase 5-10 business days after the live webinar or can be purchased as a bundle package with the live webinar.

This e-learning resource is tailored to meet the needs of busy HIM professionals and lets the user learn and earn CEUs at their convenience and on their time.

View all CHIA Webinars on Demand, including these latest additions:

  • Managing the Legal Health Record Through Data Integrity, Management and Provenance (1.5 CEUs)
  • ICD-11: What HIM Professionals Can Expect (1.5 CEUs)
  • Surgical Complication, or Not, That is the Question (1 CEU)
  • Fall 2019 Student Chat with CHIA President
  • Diaries of a Professional Fee Coding Compliance Auditor (1 CEU)
  • The Next Generation in Quality Improvement: eCQMs (1 CEU)
  • Chargemaster Essentials 2019 (1 CEU)
  • The Patient-Driven Payment Model and ICD-10 (1 CEU)
Pay It Forward: Make It a Season of Giving
As the holiday season approaches and a new year is on the horizon, consider making this a season of giving and paying it forward. This time of year embodies thankfulness, kindness and community. Giving back is a vital component for any community and can have long-lasting benefits for all. 

Are you looking for ways to give back to the health information community this season? Consider paying it forward with these CHIA opportunities: 
Donate to the CHIA Awards and Scholarship Fund

The CHIA Awards and Scholarship Fund offers CHIA Student and Active members, and California’s CAHIIM-accredited programs a variety of scholarships, awards, and grants. This fund is made possible through the generous contributions of CHIA members, Corporate Partners, vendor contributions and other HIM professionals. Please consider making a contribution today .
Become a CHIA Volunteer

Volunteers are essential to build a strong HIM association that provides education, networking and leadership opportunities. Your knowledge and support can help guide this important association functions.  

Learn more about CHIA volunteer opportunities and complete the CHIA Volunteer Questionnaire to get involved today.  
This is a paid advertisement from The College of St. Scholastica . Learn more and advertise with CHIA
Apply for a CHIA Awards and Scholarship Opportunity
The purpose of the CHIA Awards and Scholarship Fund is to promote the importance of HIM professional credentials, strengthen the HIM profession, promote the value of AHIMA and CHIA membership, identify and engage future leaders, and support HIM-related research. 

  • Student Scholarships - Deadline March 1
  • Certification Exam Fee Reimbursement Program - Deadline February 28
  • Foundation for Active Member Education (FAME) Scholarship
  • HIIM Program Grants - Deadline March 1  
  • Research Support Awards

RN Link's CDI Specialist Training - Discount for CHIA Members
February 15-16, 2020 in Glendale, CA
Registration closes on February 1

March 28-29, 2020 in Orange County Location TBD
Registration closes on March 14

Are you a coding professional interested in learning about clinical documentation improvement (CDI)? Are you a retired nurse or a nurse who wants to explore other career options? There are enormous needs in the health care industry to become a CDI Specialist where you will assist physicians to accurately document how truly ill patients are with severity ratings. The trend nowadays is quality documentation and this course will teach you how to achieve this. 

  • Day 1: Overview of CDI lingo, coding guidelines, PRE-MDC, MDC 1 through MDC 7 with case studies.
  • Day 2: Completion of MDC 8 through 25 and "The Mall." Case studies, major disease topics, clinical indicators discussed for the most common query opportunities.  

RN Link is offering a 10% discount to CHIA Members. ​ Learn more and register today!
 Southern California Healthcare Innovation Summit
February 4-5, 2020
Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine, San Diego, CA

Join top executives, physicians, practice management and health care decision makers from North America’s leading provider organizations and physician practices for a two-day executive Summit. Healthcare Innovation has developed a concise program where leading health care thought leaders interact with their fellow executives and solution providers to discuss the latest strategies and tactics to address a wide range of issues and topics. In San Diego, a nationally leading market for managed care innovation, speakers and panelists will delve into a host of topics around payer-provider data-sharing, the most innovative approaches to care management across populations, and the lessons being learned around revenue cycle management and IT governance, as patient care organization leaders move their organizations into the emerging health care system. Learn more and see the full agenda.

CHIA members and vendors may be eligible for a complimentary or discounted registration . Use the discount codes when registering; Members: CHIACOMP / Vendors: CHIA50
AHIMA News
Register Now: 2020 Advocacy Summit
March 23-24 | Washington DC
 
Registration is now open for AHIMA's Advocacy Summit , a two-day event focusing on advocacy and public policy issues linked to AHIMA's mission and vision in Washington, DC. Join us March 23-24 for AHIMA's Public Policy Institute and Capitol Hill visits. You'll hear from federal officials and other stakeholders in DC about ongoing public policy work impacting the HIM profession and have an opportunity to meet with your congressional representatives and advocate on behalf of the HIM profession. Register now
AHIMA Advocates for Streamlined Audits and Coding Review Processes in CMS RFI on Program Integrity
Sue Bowman, MJ, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA; Dec 4, 2019

In November, AHIMA submitted comments in response a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) request for information (RFI) on the future of program integrity. According to CMS, program integrity focuses on “paying the right amount, to legitimate providers and suppliers, for covered, reasonable, and necessary services provided to eligible beneficiaries while taking aggressive actions to eliminate fraud and abuse. According to the CMS RFI request, rapid change and growth in Medicare have presented immense challenges and demanded creative solutions from CMS as they strive to “pay it right,” which is a phrase CMS uses to define program integrity.

CMS uses many program integrity tools, such as contractors that conduct prepayment and post-payment review and implement auto-deny edits. However, the design of many of these program integrity methods are rooted in the past. While computer edits automatically review claims before they are paid and data analytics can detect patterns of overuse or other improprieties via post-payment review, fewer than three-tenths of one percent of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims receive any sort of medical record review. Read More
Latest HIM News Updates
OCR Secures $2.175 Million HIPAA Settlement after Hospitals Failed to Properly Notify HHS of a Breach of Unsecured Protected Health Information
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; Nov 27, 2019

In an agreement with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Sentara Hospitals (Sentara) have agreed to take corrective actions and pay $2.175 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Breach Notification and Privacy Rules. Sentara is comprised of 12 acute care hospitals with more than 300 sites of care throughout Virginia and North Carolina.

In April of 2017, HHS received a complaint alleging that Sentara had sent a bill to an individual containing another patient’s protected health information (PHI). OCR’s investigation determined that Sentara mailed 577 patients’ PHI to wrong addresses that included patient names, account numbers, and dates of services. Sentara reported this incident as a breach affecting 8 individuals, because Sentara concluded, incorrectly, that unless the disclosure included patient diagnosis, treatment information or other medical information, no reportable breach of PHI had occurred. Sentara persisted in its refusal to properly report the breach even after being explicitly advised of their duty to do so by OCR. OCR also determined that Sentara failed to have a business associate agreement in place with Sentara Healthcare, an entity that performed business associate services for Sentara. Read More
Amazon Introduces Machine Learning Medical Transcription Service
Jessica Kent; Dec 3, 2019

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new machine learning service called Amazon Transcribe Medical, which will automatically convert physician consultations and dictated notes from speech to text.

Accurate medical transcriptions are essential for effective healthcare delivery, but these transcriptions are also expensive, time-consuming, or disruptive. In some organizations, providers use a recorder to dictate notes and send the file to a third party for manual transcription, a process that could take several days.

Alternatively, some health systems use human scribes, which can be disruptive or distracting to patients and providers. “Conversations between health care providers and patients provide the foundation of a patient’s diagnosis and treatment plan, and is the start to any clinical documentation workflow,” Amazon said. Read More.  
Healthcare Threat Detections Up 45% in Q3 and 60% Higher Than 2018
HIPAA Journal; Dec 3, 2019

Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations have increased in frequency and severity in the past year, according to recently published research from Malwarebytes. In its latest report – Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques: The 2019 State of Healthcare – Malwarebytes offers insights into the main threats that have plagued the healthcare industry over the past year and explains how hackers are penetrating the defenses of healthcare organizations to gain access to sensitive healthcare data.

Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations can have severe consequences. As we have seen on several occasions this year, attacks can cause severe disruption to day to day operations at hospitals often resulting in delays in healthcare provision. In at least two cases, cyberattacks have resulted in healthcare organizations permanently closing their doors and a recent study has shown that cyberattacks contribute to an increase in heart attack mortality rates. Even though the attacks can cause considerable harm to patients, attacks are increasing in frequency and severity. Read More
Attorney General Seeks Comments for Proposed CCPA Regulations
Office of the Attorney General; Oct 2019

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), enacted in 2018, creates new consumer rights relating to the access to, deletion of, and sharing of personal information that is collected by businesses. It also requires the Attorney General to solicit broad public participation and adopt regulations to further the CCPA’s purposes. The proposed regulations would establish procedures to facilitate consumers’ new rights under the CCPA and provide guidance to businesses for how to comply.

Deadline to Submit Written Comments: December 6, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Any interested party, or their duly authorized representative, may submit written comments regarding the proposed CCPA regulations at the public hearings, by mail, or by email. The Attorney General will only consider comments received by that time. All comments received by the deadline will be posted on our website and are subject to the Public Records Act. Learn More

Public Hearings
The Attorney General will hold four public hearings to provide all interested persons with an opportunity to present statements or comments, either orally or in writing, with respect to the proposed regulations, as follows:

San Francisco - December 4, 2019
Fresno - December 5, 2019
CHIA Events Calendar
  Time to Clear the Confusion: Attorney Misuse of
Patient-Directed Record Requests and How to Cope
Tuesday, December 10 - Live Webinar
 
2020 CPT Code Set Update
Tuesday, December 17 - Live Webinar

Social Determinants of Health: Time to Initiate Data Capture with ICD-10-CM
Thursday, January 9 - Live Webinar  

Managing and Preventing Denials in a Clinically-Driven Revenue Cycle
Wednesday, January 15 - Live Webinar
 
eHIM User Symposium - Operational Best Practices
Tuesday, January 28 - Los Angeles
Thursday, January 30 - Sacramento
 
Operationalizing Information Governance: Beyond the Definition
Tuesday, February 4 - Live Webinar

CHIA Volunteer's Make a Difference
Wednesday, February 19 - Live Webinar
 
Advanced ICD-10 Coding Workshop
Wednesday, February 19 Day 1: CM - Irvine
Thursday, February 20 Day 2: PCS - Irvine

Unique Situations Involving Disclosure of Minors' Mental Health Records
Wednesday, February 26 - Live Webinar

Interventional Radiology: Peripheral Revascularization of the Lower Extremity
Tuesday, March 10 - Live Webinar

CHIA Convention & Exhibit
Sunday, June 14 thru Wednesday, June 17 - Riverside