June 19, 2019

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Provided by: Gloryanne Bryant, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, CCDS, AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer

Independent HIM Coding & CDI Compliance Consultant

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) proposed rule and this always gets the juices flowing across health care. Health information management (HIM) and clinical documentation improvement (CDI) professionals will focus on the Medicare severity diagnosis related groups (MS-DRGs) changes and the complication comorbidity (CC) and major complication comorbidity (MCC) revisions.

With these important changes being brought to the HIM professional’s attention, I am asking that the HIM community read the IPPS proposed rule, which is now open to comments. Comments on the proposed rule can be sent no later than 5 pm (ET) on June 24, 2019. It is important to read the CMS discussion and conclusions on why they feel these changes are needed. HIM, coding, CDI, and revenue cycle professionals, along with physicians, should join and send comments to CMS.

CHIA will be offering a seminar covering the final ICD-10-CM/PCS code changes and CC/MCC changes on September 24 in Southern California and September 26 Northern California. Watch for more details and plan to attend!

Read full notice here.

Proposed Changes to Medical Information Breach Regulations

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) proposed late last year a series of changes to state regulations pertaining to reporting breaches of medical information by California health care facilities. Following an initial forty-five day public comment period mandated by state law, the CDPH, taking into consideration initial public comments received, revised the proposed regulation changes this spring and published them on June 13th for a further fifteen-day public comment period, which ends on June 28th this month. Current information on the proposed regulations is available here. The California Hospital Association has closely followed the proposed changes to the medical information breach regulations and continues to have concerns regarding some of its provisions.

Changes to OSHPD Reporting Proposed

A bill currently working its way through the State Legislature will add several new data elements to the reporting of emergency department data to OSHPD. Assembly Bill 774 (AB 774) would require for the first time that the time of registration; the date and time of admission, transfer, or discharge; and the location of discharge or transfer be added to the ED abstract reported to OSHPD on all patients treated in licensed acute care hospital emergency department. The bill passed the Assembly in April and sent to the Senate where it was assigned to the Committee on Health. A hearing by the Committee on Health on the bill is planned. Visit the CHIA Legislation and Public Policy website to view all bills being monitored by CHIA’s Legislation and Advocacy Committee.

Become one of CHIA’s content leaders at the 2020 CHIA Convention & Exhibit. Share your knowledge and expertise as we explore Expanding HIM Horizons: Excellence in Health Information Integrity.

CHIA is currently accepting presentation proposals for the upcoming 2020 CHIA Convention & Exhibit in Riverside, California on June 13 - June 17. With hundreds of HIM professionals in attendance, don’t miss this exciting opportunity to present at the most popular HIM event on the West Coast.

Learn more and submit a proposal here .

Convention proposals due October 7 for consideration.

Take a peek at the CHIACON19 Slideshow where the health information community connected and had a good time while learning about Empowering Patients, Breaking Boundaries, and Bridging Gaps. We look forward to creating more memories at CHIACON20 in Riverside.

CHIA is looking for articles on a variety of timely educational topics that represent the depth and breadth of HIM roles and interests, and can include tips, strategies, techniques, case-studies, opinions and commentary to be included in the peer-reviewed CHIA Journal .

CHIA encourages members, Corporate Partners, educators, and HIM professionals to submit articles and share their knowledge with CHIA readers. Learn more or submit a article here . 

June 22-23, 2019 | Burbank, CA

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. 

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

Telehealth Set for Big Boost with $100M in New Funding from FCC

Mike Miliard of Healthcare IT News; Jun 19, 2019

Money from the Connected Care Pilot Program would help rural providers defray the cost of offering remote care to low-income patients, including veterans and others in medically underserved areas. Speaking in rural Laurel Fork, Virginia, Carr announced that the new funding is meant to increase access to care to patients and veterans in remote areas such as Appalachia.

“With advances in telemedicine, healthcare is no longer limited to the confines of traditional brick and mortar healthcare facilities,” said Carr in a statement. "I think the FCC should support this new trend towards connected care, which is the healthcare equivalent of moving from Blockbuster to Netflix. That’s why the FCC will vote to advance my $100 million pilot program at our July 10 meeting."

FCC is set to vote on a notice of proposed rulemaking next month that will seek comment on several potential provisions, including $100 million in Universal Service Fund support that will help rural providers to defray the cost of offering remote care to low-income patients, including people in medically underserved areas and veterans. Read More . 

WHO Group Discusses ICD-11 Transition Planning

Sue Bowman of Journal of AHIMA; Jun 12, 2019

In June 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a version of ICD-11 to allow countries to begin planning for implementation. This version came 18 years after WHO launched ICD-10. ICD-11 was adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 25, 2019 and will go into effect on January 1, 2022, which means that is the earliest any country can implement ICD-11. While there may be a few early adopters who implement ICD-11 soon after the effective date, many countries will not be ready to transition to ICD-11 until later.

Reasons WHO decided to move forward with development of an 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) included:

Read more .