July 18, 2018

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Cast your vote in the 2018 AHIMA Election and pick your “Inspiring Leadership/Influencing Change” candidates. Currently 1.86% of the membership has voted. CHIA encourages you to vote before the July 23rd deadline, and contact your colleagues to cast their vote. Let’s increase the voter turnout this year and make history. 

Learn more about the AHIMA Election and read the candidate bios online or watch candidate videos on AHIMAonDEMAND and hear more about them in their own words, then CAST YOUR VOTE!

Provided are excerpts from the July/August CHIA Journal . CHIA members receive a mailed hard copy, and all CHIA and AHIMA members can access the digital version online to view, read, and enjoy now!

Focus on Education

California’s health information management (HIM) and health information technology (HIT) programs continue to meet the demands of the health care industry by offering degreed programs in health information, health informatics, cancer registry, and other related fields.

For the annual Focus on Education issue of the CHIA Journal, CHIA asked California-based colleges and universities that offer Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management (CAHIIM)-accredited degreed programs in HIM and HIT to share what’s new and exciting at their school.

Check out the latest issue to hear from Shasta College, City College of San Francisco, Fresno City College, Santa Barbara City College, East Los Angeles College, Cypress College, Loma Linda University, Saddleback College, and San Diego Mesa College.

You’ve Graduated! What’s Next? Navigating a Career in HIM

by Jeehyun (EJ) Choi

Pursuing a credential in health information and informatics can be worthwhile – and for those who come from entirely different backgrounds – a daunting quest. Many students tend to lack relevant work experience upon graduation, and it only serves to make the gap between students and professionals seem even more impossible to cross. This article offers four points for students and recent graduates to consider; points that I’ve had to learn in my own journey from student to budding health information management (HIM) professional.

As students, the tendency is to narrow down career possibilities based on  classes, not hands-on experience.

Students sit in classrooms and hear words like “audit” and “data analytics” and are intimidated immediately or

brush them off because they don’t mesh well with perceived strengths. However, keep an open mind so that

opportunities aren’t missed before a student’s career path has even started. Students must never forget

that learning a subject academically can be vastly different from practical application. 

CHIA is currently accepting presentation proposals for the upcoming 2019 CHIA Convention & Exhibit in Indian Wells, California on June 8 - June 12. This the most popular HIM event on the West Coast and includes more than 30 educational sessions and several pre-convention tutorials. With hundreds of HIM professionals in attendance, this is a presenting opportunity you don’t want to miss. The #CHIACON19 theme is Empowering Patients, Breaking Boundaries, and Bridging Gaps

Submit a CHIA Convention Program Proposal. Proposals due October 12 for consideration.

CMS Proposes Historic Changes to Modernize Medicare and Restore the Doctor-Patient Relationship

U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Jul 12, 2018

Proposed changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program would streamline clinician billing and expand access to high-quality care

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed historic changes that would increase the amount of time that doctors and other clinicians can spend with their patients by reducing the burden of paperwork that clinicians face when billing Medicare. The proposed rules would fundamentally improve the nation’s healthcare system and help restore the doctor-patient relationship by empowering clinicians to use their electronic health records (EHRs) to document clinically meaningful information, instead of information that is only for billing purposes.

“Today’s reforms proposed by CMS bring us one step closer to a modern healthcare system that delivers better care for Americans at a lower cost,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “Such a system requires empowering American patients by giving them price and quality transparency and control over their own interoperable health records, goals supported by CMS’s proposals. These proposals will also advance the successful Medicare Advantage program and accomplish a historic regulatory rollback to help physicians put patients over paperwork. Further, today’s proposed reforms to how CMS pays for medicine demonstrate the commitment of HHS to implementing President Trump’s blueprint for lowering drug prices. The ambitious reforms proposed by CMS under Administrator Verma will help deliver on two HHS priorities: creating a value-based healthcare system for the 21st century and making prescription drugs more affordable.”

Read Release

Social Determinant ICD-10 Codes Can Be Assigned Based on Non-physician Documentation

Mary Butler for Journal of AHIMA; Jul 6, 2018

The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently reaffirmed that providers can assign social determinant codes in ICD-10-CM based on documentation from any member of the care team, including non-physicians such as social workers, case managers, nurses, and other allied staff.

This guidance, which was published in the first quarter 2018 issue of the AHA’s Coding Clinic for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS, had an effective date of February 18.

“These codes are not new codes,” Sue Bowman, MJ, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA, senior director, coding policy and compliance at AHIMA, said. “They were already available in ICD-10-CM, but may have been under-utilized because coders thought they couldn’t assign the codes unless the patient’s physician documented the factors described by the codes. As noted in the AHA article, the factors and circumstances described by the codes are typically documented by healthcare professionals other than the physician, so the advice published in Coding Clinic was merely affirming that it is okay to report these codes if the only documentation to support them is from a non-physician.”

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