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E-Newsletter • August 2022 |
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Editor's E-Note
The days of HIM professionals being portrayed as “glorified clerks” handing out giant packets of medical records are long gone. At least they should be.
The profession has adeptly reconfigured itself to be at the heart of the data explosion throughout health care. Protecting and enhancing the quality of health care information is pretty much job No. 1.
For more insights into where the profession is headed, this month’s E-News Exclusive spotlights an industry survey that measured several vital factors in terms of what a career in HIM looks like.
— Lee DeOrio, editor |
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Census Reveals How HIM Professionals Are Embracing the Opportunity to Evolve
By Angela Lima, BS, CCS, CDIP, CIC, COC
Most HIM professionals say they want to seek additional training in the coming year with plans for skills development focusing on coding, auditing, management, and clinical documentation integrity.
The only constant is change. Change is what drives us to become more enlightened. It forces us to step out of our comfort zones and into new areas of opportunity and growth. It is not always easy, but change can be very rewarding if we learn to embrace it. That is exactly what today’s forward-thinking HIM professionals are doing as technology, the pandemic, and dynamic regulations continue to shape the profession.
Libman Education’s 2022 HIM Professional Census found that most HIM professionals want to seek additional training in the coming year with plans to focus on coding (81%), auditing (58%), management (39%), and clinical documentation integrity (28%). Libman Education conducted its annual HIM Professional Census in May 2022, and more than 1,200 participants nationwide responded.
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| Recently in For The Record |
The OCR: Friend, Not Foe
When it comes to release of information processes, health care organizations should embrace help from the Office for Civil Rights. Read more »
The People Factor
Part one of a three-part series on the pandemic’s effect on HIM operations examines how the shift to a remote workforce has been playing out. Read more » |
HIPAA Faces Test in New Abortion Reality
Since HIPAA doesn't prevent health care providers from sharing medical information with law enforcement, providers are now in uncharted waters when dealing with those seeking to enforce state abortion bans, reports Axios.
Revenue Cycle Processes Push US to Top of List for Highest Medical Billing Costs
The United States has a very different coding process from other countries, resulting in higher billing and insurance-related costs, according to HealthLeaders. |
AHDI Announces New Credential
Technology has drastically altered the landscape of health care documentation and, in turn, the role of the health care documentation specialist (HDS). In recent years, HDSs have worked as medical secretaries, medical transcriptionists, speech recognition editors, auditors of clinician-created documentation, and scribes. Regardless of the title, the goal has always been the same: ensuring complete and accurate patient health stories that support optimal health care outcomes.
More health care professionals than ever are creating and interacting with the medical record. Providers, scribes, medical assistants, coders, HDSs, etc are all responsible for capturing the patient’s story accurately and completely.
Through research and analysis, we have identified professional standards required to successfully work within the medical record. Because AHDI advocates for a fully credentialed workforce, the Credentialing Commission for Healthcare Documentation developed a new credential using those standards. This new credential will validate an individual’s knowledge and expertise as a health care documentation professional. The Certified Healthcare Documentation Professional (CHDP) credential is intended for anyone who interacts with the medical record. Two micro-credentials have also been developed—one for auditors (CHDP-A) and one for scribes (CHDP-S)—that will further attest to the specific knowledge required for these roles. Covered topics include medical terminology, clinical medicine, HIPAA privacy and security, regulatory compliance, health IT, documentation standards, critical thinking skills, patient risk evaluation, and job roles and responsibilities.
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AHIMA White Paper Explores the Future of Clinical Documentation
AHIMA and Altera Digital Health have released the “Clinical Decision Support: Leveraging Technology to Drive Outcomes and Efficiencies” white paper. A panel of clinicians and health information experts discussed the impact of enhanced clinical decision support (CDS) on clinical workflow and satisfaction, reporting faster decision-making, enhanced efficiencies, and improved patient outcomes. Enhanced CDS systems are becoming a critical part of the health care IT landscape. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming CDS systems, from burdensome platforms offering alerts with limited value to intelligent workflows, supporting best practices based on relevant patient history in real time. Experts identify new use cases for CDS from early recognition of malnutrition in pediatric patients to supporting chronic care management for patients with congestive heart failure. The white paper uncovers key points, including identifying ways in which enhanced CDS systems enable high-quality, low-cost care; effective ways in which CDS systems integrate with clinicians; and evaluating artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and address biases in patient data. Learn more »
The Sequoia Project Releases TEFCA Resources
The Sequoia Project, selected by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as the recognized coordinating entity to support the implementation of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), has released the Informational Resource for Flowing Down Common Agreement Provisions Into Framework Agreements (TEFCA Flow-Down Resource) and the Types of Entities That Can Be a Participant or Subparticipant in TEFCA Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The TEFCA Flow-Down Resource assists qualified health information networks (QHINs) as well as participants and subparticipants in complying with their required flow-down obligations in the common agreement. The resource includes general information regarding each section of the common agreement and its impact (or lack thereof) on participant-QHIN agreements, as well as example terms and requirements that must be flowed down to a QHIN’s participants. The “Types of Entities That Can Be a Participant or Subparticipant in TEFCA SOP Version 1” helps entities determine the entry point to the network of TEFCA-compliant QHINs that works for them.
Technology Platform Accelerates the Revenue Cycle
DeliverHealth recently launched its documentation, coding, and digital health patient experience DeliverHealth Platform. The platform removes inherent complexities clinicians and care teams face while helping administration and operations obtain the realization of their EHR investments. Its novel platform and unique “best-of-breed” approach to rendering purpose-built artificial intelligence autonomous coding solution within workflows delivers 15% to 30% time back and exponentially greater cost savings, enabling health organizations to appropriately code, bill faster, increase cash on hand, and decrease costs. When fully optimized, the autonomous coding tool completes coding within seconds at an unlimited volume threshold and takes advantage of the best technology available with no friction for the coding function. Learn more »
The Craneware Group Unveils Trisus Chargemaster Solution
The Craneware Group, the health care market leader in automated value cycle solutions, recently unveiled its Trisus Chargemaster application, which is a cloud-based solution built on the growing Trisus platform. Trisus Chargemaster is built to meet the needs of health care organizations of all sizes, with the ability to manage both hospital and physician charges and fee schedule line items in one application. It includes Trisus Reference, a powerful application delivering reference and coding data for all users across the organization, providing easy navigation and code search, ICD-10 crosswalks, CCI Multicode Checker, Calculator for OPPS reimbursement, and more. The company also unveiled its new branding and design as The Craneware Group, which includes Sentry Data Systems and Agilum Healthcare Intelligence, along with a new "Unlock It" campaign. Learn more » |
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