AAPC Preview

HEALTHCON 2016 Offers Edification and Enchantment

By Heather Hogstrom

HEALTHCON 2016, AAPC’s 24th Annual National Conference, is taking place April 10-13 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida. Discounted theme park tickets are available for HEALTHCON attendees, who can take a break from educational sessions to enjoy the attractions, including dozens of Disney-themed topiaries at the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival.

More than 90 educational sessions, offering 18 CEUs, are available for attendees to choose from. The conference covers a broad spectrum of health care knowledge, but each session is marked with the areas it pertains to, so attendees can focus on educational sessions that are most relevant to their job title. These areas are as follows:

• Coding: Relevant sessions include “ICD-10-CM External Cause Codes,” which will prepare attendees for the new group of external cause codes in ICD-10; “10 Things You Need to Know About Computer-Assisted Coding,” which will focus on need-to-know details such as current trends as well as pros and cons of computer-assisted coding; and “Translating Physician Language to Coder Speak,” which will look at language that may be overlooked but can support more specified diagnosis codes.

• Billing: Relevant sessions include “Little Mistakes Can Still Be Fraud,” which will point out scenarios and errors attendees may not realize are fraud, and “Common Compliance Pitfalls — Don’t Get Stuck in the Muck!,” which will identify commonly overlooked billing compliance pitfalls and strategies to get through them.

• Auditing: Relevant sessions include “The Two-Midnight Rule: Where Are We Now?,” which will discuss what needs to be done to prepare for and pass reviews, and “Post ICD-10 … Managing Coding Risks,” which will explore ICD-10 coding from an auditing perspective.

• Compliance: Relevant sessions include “HIPAA: Are You As Compliant As You Think?,” which will examine scenarios where HIPAA compliance may slip; “Compliance Risks in Electronic Medical Records,” which will discuss how to handle potential compliance risks following EMR implementation; and “Paddle Harder, I Hear Banjos,” which will enable audience discussion about common risks for practices and meeting compliance guidelines.

• Practice Management: Relevant sessions include “Wearable Devices,” a general session that will provide attendees with new ideas to apply; “Telemedicine — Is It Time?,” which will discuss current telemedicine utilization; and “Ten Things to Know About Security and Privacy Breaches,” which will explore key issues in HIPAA breaches and their prevention.

Attendees can download the conference app from iTunes or Google Play to view their schedule, presentation handouts, social media, and more. For more information or to register, visit healthcon.com.

— Heather Hogstrom is an editorial assistant at For The Record.