October 17, 2018

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The recently concluded 2018 AHIMA House of Delegates held in Miami on Sunday, September 23, was charged this year with examining and making recommendations on four issues of current importance to the HIM profession. Each delegate was assigned primary responsibility for one House issue. The four topics presented for discussion and feedback during breakout sessions at the AHIMA HOD were:

The CHIA Delegates to AHIMA participated in the sessions bringing forth any comments that the CHIA membership shared with them prior to convention. The issues and recommendations made are summarized in the online CHIA Delegate report .

November 10-11, 2018 | Embassy Suites, Glendale, CA

Are you a coding professional interested in learning about clinical documentation improvement (CDI)? Are you a retired nurse or do you want to have additional income without doing patient care? Are you a nurse who wants to explore other career options in the field of nursing instead of bedside care? Are you a foreign medical school graduate who wants to venture into the health care industry and be able to apply your clinical knowledge?

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. 

RN Link is offering a 10% discount to CHIA Members . ​ Learn more and register today !

November 8-9, 2018 | Beverly Hills, CA

CHIA is partnering with the Beverly Hills HIT Summit to offer complimentary passes to CHIA members . Use code CHIACOMP when registering.

Join top executives, physicians, practice management and IT decision makers from North America's leading provider organizations and physician practices in Beverly Hills, CA for a two­-day executive Health IT Summit. We've developed a concise program where leading healthcare 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, including: data security, population health, data analytics, accountable care, telemedicine, and more. This exclusive, high-level program is a great opportunity to stay ahead of the challenges we all face and to network with other healthcare leaders and,colleagues. 

Learn more and see the full agenda .

The ICD 10-CM In a SNAP - 2019 Version Available Now

($40 Member/Non Member Price)

This publication provides a simple way to assign diagnostic codes for common diagnosis. Code numbers are found quickly because the alphabetical listing is by diagnostic terms used by physicians and not obscure coding terminology. It becomes easy for staff to code correctly and consistently everytime. Finding codes in ICD-10-CM In a Snap is easy! 2019 Edition includes 279 additions, 51 deletions and 143 revisions.

Learn More & Order Today!

The Commission on Certification for Health Informatics and Information Management (CCHIIM) is a volunteer group of HIIM professionals responsible for establishing, implementing, and enforcing standards and procedures for certification and recertification of HIIM professionals and strategic oversight of AHIMA certification programs. They have approved an overhaul of: 

These policies go into effect November 1, 2018. Click here for more information .  

Upcoming OSHPD Product Releases

Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development

The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) produces datasets and data products from a variety of sources that includes information submitted to OSHPD by licensed health care facilities across the state of California. For the latest data visualizations, visit OSHPD’s website.

CMS Announces Participants in New Value-Based Bundled Payment Model

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Oct 9, 2018

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that 1,299 entities have signed agreements with the agency to participate in the Administration’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement – Advanced (BPCI Advanced) Model. The participating entities will receive bundled payments for certain episodes of care as an alternative to fee-for-service payments that reward only the volume of care delivered.

The Model participants include 832 Acute Care Hospitals and 715 Physician Group Practices – a total of 1,547 Medicare providers and suppliers, located in 49 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Of note, BPCI Advanced qualifies as an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (Advanced APM) under MACRA, so participating providers can be exempted from the reporting requirements associated with the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

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Anthem Pays OCR $16 Million in Record HIPAA Settlement Following Largest U.S. Health Data Breach in History

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; Oct 15, 2018

Anthem, Inc. has agreed to pay $16 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and take substantial corrective action to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules after a series of cyberattacks led to the largest U.S. health data breach in history and exposed the electronic protected health information of almost 79 million people.

The $16 million settlement eclipses the previous high of $5.55 million paid to OCR in 2016.

Anthem is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association operating throughout the United States and is one of the nation’s largest health benefits companies, providing medical care coverage to one in eight Americans through its affiliated health plans. This breach affected electronic protected health information (ePHI) that Anthem, Inc. maintained for its affiliated health plans and any other covered entity health plans. 

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ONC and OCR Bolster the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool with New Features and Improved Functionality

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; Oct 16, 2018

Patients expect not only quality health care to keep them healthy, but also trust that their most sensitive health information will be protected from threats and vulnerabilities that could lead to the compromise of one’s health information. An enterprise-wide risk analysis is not only a requirement of the HIPAA Security Rule, it is also an important process to help healthcare organizations understand their security posture to prevent costly data breaches. What is an enterprise-wide risk analysis? It is a robust review and analysis of the risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic health information -- across all lines of business, in all facilities, and in all locations.

The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) have updated the popular Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool to make it easier to use and apply more broadly to the risks to health information. The tool is designed for use by small to medium sized health care practices – those with one to 10 health care providers – covered entities, and business associates to help them identify risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI. The updated tool provides enhanced functionality to document how such organizations can implement or plan to implement appropriate security measures to protect ePHI. 

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