AHIMA Advantage - December 2011

Advantage Volume 15 | No. 6

DECEMBER 2011

Reporting AHIMA News and Events

IN THIS ISSUE »

AHIMA Certification Exam Preparation Resources AHIMA CERTIFICATION ENSURES MAXIMUM CAREER POTENTIAL AHIMA issues credentials in health information management (HIM), coding, health data analysis, clinical documentation improvement and healthcare privacy and security, establishing professional standards of excellence. AHIMA offers exam preparation resources to help you prepare for your exam, including online practice exams, books, and online courses. For a complete list of publications and online training recommended as resources for AHIMA exams, visit ahima.org/certification and select “Exam Resources.”

LOOK

INSIDE!

MX7134 EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2012 AHIMA’s Commission on Certification has revised the eligibility criteria for CHDA and CHPS. Now more people will be able to meet the requirements to sit for the exams. See the new eligibility requirements on the CHDA and CHPS pages at ahima.org/ certification.

Certification
Information

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NEW AND NOTABLE

A general overview of the latest news from AHIMA.

House Election Results
House of Delegates Speaker,
Speaker-elect announced

HIEs: Get Involved with Your

ICD-10 Training
2012 ICD-10 Academy
dates announced

State’s Initiatives

Meaningful Use Volunteer
Group Seeks Participants
Contact AHIMA’s Director of
Federal Relations

The number of health information exchanges (HIEs) has risen from 234 in 2010 to 255 in 2011, according to a recent report by the eHealth Initiative (eHI) titled, “2011 Report on Health Information Exchange: The Changing Landscape.” The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) hopes to create a Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) in the next decade. Will this goal become a reality, and what role should HIM professionals play?

Know the HIE Landscape

Managing Nontext Media New practice brief available

In general, HIEs come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from the geographic distance they cover, the information they exchange, the number of providers they include, the consent models under which they operate, and more.

A New View of HIM

States are currently approaching HIEs in one of the following two ways:

Introducing the Core Model

• Initiating one statewide HIE to which all providers connect

Coding Quiz
Take a new coding quiz each Monday

• Engaging multiple—and potentially interconnected—Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIO)

New AHIMA
Publication Available
Policies & Procedures: A Health
Information Manager’s Toolkit

On a more granular level, some hospitals and other providers, all of whom use the same EHR vendor, have also been creating smaller-scale HIEs. Although these HIEs are more grass-roots and locally focused, they are also desirable from an implementation standpoint, as there are far fewer technological challenges to overcome.

Fellowship Deadline
Approaching
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Some industry experts worry that each of the different HIE approaches may delay or even prohibit the establishment of an NwHIN. Others fear that HIM professionals aren’t providing sufficient input into the creation of HIEs, which may lead to future complications with information exchange. Experts say HIM professionals possess a