PHIMA President's Address
Greetings to my
fellow members- It is May and all
thoughts go towards SPRING--- and the PHIMA
ANNUAL MEETING!
The
agenda for the Annual Meeting is OUTSTANDING with great variety of topics and
speakers. Our Education Committee and Coding Roundtable OUTDID themselves-
please take a look at the agenda!!! Lorri will have more to tell you- she has
lined up a lot of GREAT VENDORS with interesting products and services. In
addition- another FIRST- there will be an Educators Forum at the Annual Meeting
for our PA Educators!
Your Board and
Committees have been very busy- please take a
look at the Website and CoP for updates.I hope you are finding the Keystoner interesting
and informative. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. We are trying
to let you see the people serving PHIMA and what your Committees are doing.
Our PHIMA election is over--- and You have
elected great representatives. I was surprised and disappointed about the
voter turnout- maybe we can find a way to improve a little next year! I want to
especially thank the 316 Members who took the time to vote- it is greatly
appreciated.
Number of Votes: 316
# of Eligible Voters as of March 7th: 2139
Voting Response Rate: 15%
| President-Elect |
| Chris Parfitt, RHIT |
| Secretary |
| Denise Dunyak, MS, RHIA |
|
Director |
|
Dawn
Criswell, MS, RHIA |
|
Delegate |
|
Kathy
Arner, LPN, RHIT, CCS, CPC |
|
AHIMA Nominating Committee
|
|
Eve-Ellen Mandler, MS, RHIA, CCS |
Thank you for
allowing me this privilege to serve you. Hope to
see you at the Annual Meeting.
Eve-Ellen
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PHIMA Board of Directors Elections
Statistics
Submitted by:
Lorri L. Luciano, RHIA
Thanks
to all the PHIMA Member who took the time to
exercise your right and duty to help select the
next PHIMA Board of Directors. The election
period for the 2009/2010 Board of Directors was
held from February 1, 2009 to March 6, 2009.
In the 2008 and
2009 election, only 15% of our members
participated in this critical activity of the
association.
2008 Region
Results (321 Ballots)
|
Local Association |
# of Votes |
|
CPHIMA |
49 |
|
LVHIMA |
16 |
|
NEPHIMA |
18 |
|
NWPHIMA |
3 |
|
SEPHIMA |
107 |
|
WPHIMA |
88 |
|
Unknown |
40 |
2009 Region
Results (313 Ballots)
|
Local Association |
# of Votes |
|
CPHIMA |
65 |
|
LVHIMA |
25 |
|
NEPHIMA |
20 |
|
NWPHIMA |
4 |
|
SEPHIMA |
69 |
|
WPHIMA |
87 |
|
Unknown |
43 |
As an association
we are pleased and proud our membership
continues to show they do want to get involved
especially with an important activity like
voting for the Board of Directors. Attend the
2009 PHIMA Annual Meeting (www.phima.org/AnnualMeetingHome.htm)
May 18 – 20, 2009, to meet your 2009/2010 PHIMA
Board of Directors.
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PHIMA March Board Meeting Highlights
Submitted by:
Carol Houlihan, Secretary
The PHIMA board
held its third 2008/2009 meeting on 3/12/09 in
Carlisle, PA. Highlights include:
2009/2010 Board
Election: The votes are in, 15% of the
membership chose to participate…look for the
results soon! Look for some committee
reorganization as well, including a new
committee “Clinical Documentation Improvement
Committee”.
ROI Manual:
The comments from the legal review of the ROI
Manual have been received. The comments were to
be responded to by the end of March 2009 so look
for the manual to be available very soon.
Distribution will be via download or CD (no
paper version).
2009 PHIMA
Annual Meeting: As of 3/12/09 we still had
10 vendor spots available.
PHIMA Fiscal vs
Calendar Year: There had been recent
interest in learning whether there would be an
advantage to changing our budget cycle from
Fiscal Year (July-June) to Calendar Year
(Jan-Dec). Talks were held with BAMM which
recommended that we NOT change our cycle. We
will however begin investigating the feasibility
of having one (1) membership application for
PHIMA & those local associations who are now
using KnowledgeConnex.
Financial
Analysis Audit: Our Treasurer, Executive
Director & BAMM recently participated in audit
of our records. All in all we have a good
double checking system in place with only a few
minor enhancements suggested.
PA School
Counselors Association (PSCA): PHIMA will
be participating in the PSCA Annual meeting to
be held at the Milton Hershey School, Hershey
PA, on April 16th & 17th.
RHIT/RHIA
Reimbursement: As of 3/12/09 PHIMA has
awarded 15 RHIA/RHIT examination reimbursements.
A survey to recent graduates as to their
knowledge of the reimbursement potential was
sent out in February 2009. Of 175 email
sent, we had a 6% (20 responses) response rate.
Of those 20, only 12 were aware of our
reimbursement policy. The survey will be resent
in the near future.
Next meeting will be held during the PHIMA Annual
Meeting, May 18-20, 2009, in State College PA.
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2nd
Year Director Article
Submitted by Kathy
Arner, LPN,RHIT,CCS,CPC,MCS,CPMA
It is hard to
believe that it is almost a year since Eve-Ellen
and I sat down at the PHIMA State meeting last
year in State College to review what duties the
2nd Year Director had to do.
Eve-Ellen felt that position would be an
opportunity to collaborate with other groups.
The challenge was
on! Eve-Ellen gave me several groups to contact
right from the start. But I kept calling and
e-mailing other groups as well. I met and spoke
with such nice people who were willing to share
their activities as well.
A calendar was
developed with everyone’s activities and was
posted on the PHIMA.org website. This calendar
took a little to coordinate, so after 6 months
Eve-Ellen, Lorrie Luciano met before Board
meeting in Dec and decided whatever information
I received from outside groups I would send to
Lorrie and she would keep the calendar updated.
This way it will be available all of the time
for everyone.
We have been given
a lot of different opportunities this year to
participate in other opportunities we may not
have had without this activity.
Through
collaboration, we have gained insight to other
organizations, speakers, new education
opportunities and some new members.
I would like to
take this opportunity to thank those I have made
contact with or have personally met this year:
Bruce
Marcolongo – Past President of DVHIMSS (Delaware
Valley)
Tim
Schoener, CPHIMSS, FHIMSS – Williamsport
Sean
O’Brien – Hospital Council of Western Pa
Eve-Ellen Mandler – President PHIMA
Lorrie
Luciano – Executive Director of PHIMA
Carol
Croft – PA – AHDI
Mary
Ann Leonard – Long Term Care
Barry
Ross – Past President WPHIMSS
Jen
Pojedinec – President WPHIMSS
Robert
Glanville – Event Coordinator for Healthcare
Trade Faire– Oregon
Paula
Frost – AHDI
Stephanie Serra – Manager Member Services HIMSS
HFMA
ACDIS
Jane
Montgomery – RAC Coding Programs
PAMGMA
– Bruce Armstrong, President
Thomas
Miele – Director, Information Security
Scott
Sutherland FBI
We accomplished a
lot this year, and it will continue to be an
ongoing process. Not everything that was tried
worked, but the stepping stones have been laid
for the future.
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AHIMA Hill Day from a First Timer’s
Perspective
By Denise Dunyak, MS, RHIA
For
the past 4 or 5 years, my friend and colleague Wannetta Edwards (Advocacy Chair
of SEPHIMA) has attended AHIMA’s Hill Day. At times, my job
responsibilities had me traveling in a sales support role which made attending
impossible. Last year, I registered, but last minute health issue
kept me away. (And NO, it wasn’t an intentional ploy to relieve me
of that day.) This year, I was determined to attend.
Much to Wannetta’s delight, I joined her along with Gloria Davis, Joyce Garozza,
Karen Gibson, and Fran Guiles of SEPHIMA and Valerie Watzlaf of WPHIMA and
current AHIMA board member. This was the largest representation ever
from Pennsylvania.
The afternoon prior we had a de-briefing by Don
Rode, Don Asmonga and others on the issues at hand including gaining support for
SNOMED, reclassifying the HIM job description with the Department of Labor (DOL),
Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM),
seeking support to increase funding to Allied Health Professionals and the like.
That was followed by a networking reception, which allowed for networking with
old friends and making new ones.
Bright and early
on Tuesday morning, we met for breakfast and
when Don Asmonga called out: Pennsylvania, the
excitement began to build (well at least for me)
as we found out that we had appointments with
Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter and
Congressman Tim Murphy from Pittsburgh, Jim
Gerlach from Chester County, and Robert Brady
from Philadelphia. We hopped a cab and arrived
on Capitol Hill for our appointments. It was
far from balmy (about 30 degrees when we
started), but our excitement and enthusiasm
quickly warmed us up.
We met with aides
for Casey, Specter, Murphy and Brady, but Jim
Gerlach met with us personally. We were
impressed by his interest. And he actually
stumped us with: WHO OWNS/MANUFACTURED SNOMED
and DOES THE VA’s VISTA USE SNOMED? We DO
have some follow up. He agreed to send a
“dear colleague” letter to his counterparts to
help reclassify the HIM profession with the DOL,
DLS, and OPM. If you asked
Wannetta to sum up Hill Day in one word, she
would say, “exhilarating”… I would have to
agree. While I was tongue tied at times (and
for those who know me, that doesn’t happen
often), it truly was exciting to be where the
action is, where history is made and to at least
influence change.
My
plea to all of you reading this article: PLEASE
CONSIDER JOINING US NEXT YEAR. Pennsylvania is
so close to DC. It’s an easy trip. If states
like Florida and Tennessee can send upwards of
4, 5 to 10+ people, we should easily be able to
double our numbers from this year.
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Spotlight on your 1st Year
Director
As
1st year Director, I am really proud
and excited to serve on the PHIMA board and
participate in the HIM community. It is an
exciting time for health care but most
importantly, it is an exciting time for the HIM
professional. Since President Obama signed the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (AARA)
on February 19, 2009, many of us have been
working on various initiatives or projects that
directly relate to this legislation. Whether we
are volunteering, teaching, selecting,
implementing, or using an EHRS we are getting
involved with the migration toward the
electronic health record. HIM professionals
will shortly see much activity around the
adoption and diffusion of the EHRS and this year
PHIMA’s annual meeting offers many sessions to
prepare us for this transition. The program
this year is timely because if offers the
fundamentals of project management, change
management and other topics that can strengthen
our knowledge base. I look forward to seeing you
at the annual meeting!
In my role as a
PHIMA board member, I will highlight the many
ways that I have been involved with the
membership. First, I have given a lot of
attention to the processing of the PHIMA
RHIA/RHIT exam reimbursement. PHIMA really
supports education and the growth of our
profession with this initiative and so, it is a
pleasure to reimburse recent graduates
(especially in these economic times I might
add). I call the RHIA/RHIT reimbursement process
“work in progress” and it is an iterative
process as we survey the applicants and find
better ways to support and streamline this
process. The policy for reimbursement remains
the same, but we are enhancing the procedure. We
are making it easier for the graduate to use the
online application. PHIMA’s support for
education extends beyond the membership; we have
contacted the HIA and HIT professional schools
in PA and we are working closely with them to
identify how our organization (PHIMA) can
continue to support education. Secondly, I have
been involved in the Student Scholarship
process, which is always a pleasure. The Student
Scholarship Awards will be announced at the
annual meeting. In January, I offered an
audioconference on virtual employees. Overall
getting involved with PHIMA has been rewarding
and encourage you to do the same! I hope to see
you at the annual meeting.
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Legislative and Advocacy Committee Article
Submitted by Karen
Jadach, RHIA CCS, Stephen Young, RHIA
Co-Chair Legislative and Advocacy Committee
The Committee has
indeed been busy with a variety of legislative
and regulatory issues. For this issue of the Key
stoner, we are pleased to be able to provide a
snapshot of several bills introduced into the
General Assembly, along with updates to PA e-HI,
the Governor’s budget initiatives as well record
retention requirements for Infant Foot Prints.Legislation which
reauthorizes the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost
Containment Council (PHC4) has been introduced
by both Senate and House.
Senate Bill 89 and
House Bill 173
includes a number of changes recommended by HAP
to reduce compliance costs and provide for more
transparency and accountability of PHC4 actions.
Both bills have been referred to Committee for
review.
House Bill 84
prohibits a health care provider from seeking
payment from a health payer, patient, or other
responsible party of the patient for a
preventable serious adverse event. The bill
defines “preventable serious adverse event” as
an event that occurs in a health care facility
that is within the health care provider’s
control to avoid, but that occurs because of an
error or other system failure and results in a
patient’s death, loss of body part,
disfigurement, disability, or loss of bodily
function lasting more than seven days or still
present at the time of discharge from a health
care facility. Such events shall be within the
list of reportable serious events adopted by the
National Quality Forum. This bill has been
referred to Banking and Insurance committee for
review.
Several members of
the committee have actively represented PHIMA as
working members of the PA e-HI subcommittees.
Members contributed to the draft content of the
PA e HI White Paper “Ensuring and Addressing
Privacy and Security of Health Information
Exchange in Pennsylvania” Summary and full-text
versions of the white paper are now available on
www.PAeHI.org
as well as the PHIMA website and PA COP.
Governor Ed
Rendell introduced a proposed 2009-2010 state
budget on February 4 that cuts Medicaid payments
to hospitals by $130 million in combined state
and federal funds. To help pay for the $28.9
billion budget, the Governor plans to increase
taxes on tobacco and natural gas extraction; use
funds from the Rainy Day Fund and other sources;
and use funds expected to be part of the federal
stimulus package. Additional provisions in the
proposed budget include expansion of the CHIP
and adult BASIC programs, establishment of a new
tax on managed care organizations, changes to
the pharmacy services offered under
HealthChoices, restatement of the
administration’s desire to address the Mcare
Fund’s unfunded liability, and creation of a new
state agency to address long-term, home, and
community-based care for the elderly and
disabled.
Finally, for those members who struggle with the
state interpretive guidelines regarding retention of Infant Foot Prints, we urge
you to contact Karen Jadach at
K_Jadach@FCCC.edu.
HAP is willing to work with PHIMA to revise the interpretive guidelines.
We are collecting comments from members regarding specific retention practices
within facilities and the specific problems that the indefinite retention
requirement poses.
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Technology
Committee Article
The PHIMA
Technology Committee’s two primary charges are
to facilitate the Pennsylvania CoP on the AHIMA
extranet and to advise the PHIMA board on the
content and functionality provided on the PHIMA
website. The committee works very closely with
the Executive Director who is vitally important
in monitoring and updating both the Pennsylvania
CoP (PaCoP) and PHIMA’s website.
If you have not
yet utilized the Pennsylvania CoP, I encourage
you to do so. It is a great way to share
information with others, ask a question, network
with over 800 Pennsylvania-based colleagues and
provide feedback on statewide or national
issues. The PaCoP contains news, links to
helpful resources, and, most importantly,
solutions and ideas from peers. It's much more
than a discussion board, because there are many
tools integrated into this site to help members
connect with members. You must be a member of
AHIMA to access the PaCoP. Just click the
Pennsylvania CoP link at the bottom right of the
PHIMA website to get started.
The Pennsylvania
CoP can also provide a CEU opportunity now that
AHIMA has given approval for up to 2 CEUs just
for using the AHIMA PaCoP site. PA is the first
state to give this a try.
Please read the policy regarding how use of
the Pennsylvania CoP can translate to CEUs.
You may not have
noticed but there is a new Regions tab on the
PHIMA website. Over the last year, PHIMA has
worked with several of the regional associations
to enhance each of their websites functionality
while enhancing the quality and use of the PHIMA
website. Three regional associations have
partnered with PHIMA in using one website
vendor. This pooling of website technology has
enabled the regional associations to share the
costs of maintaining a high quality website
while gaining the benefit of advanced
functionality, such as online registration and
voting, that may have otherwise been
unaffordable or difficult to maintain for the
regional association. This has benefited those
regions greatly and has provided benefits to
every member of those regions whether they are
PHIMA Premiere Members or not.
The PHIMA
Technology Committee and the Executive Board
continue to use technology to provide or enhance
the benefits received by PHIMA members. The
Technology Committee welcomes any comments,
questions or recommendations you may have
regarding the PaCoP or the PHIMA website.
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Understanding E-Codes
Submitted by:
Linda Massey, CCS, CCS-P and Chris Parfitt, RHIT
Coding Roundtable
Co-Chairs and Nathan McWilliams, MPA, RHIA,
Director MIS/Trauma Registry PA Trauma Systems
Foundation
EXTERNAL CAUSES OF
INJURY
E-Codes are the
main classification system for providing data
for injury research and evaluation of injury.
They are the capturing of the mechanism of
injury (cause) and intent (accident,
intentional, etc.) and the place where the
injury or poisoning occurred. E-Codes are
extremely important to institutions of all types
and vitally important for the nation’s public
health information needs.
Multiple Causes E
code Guideline: If two or more events cause
separate injuries an E code should be assigned
for each cause. The first listed E-code should
correspond to the most serious diagnosis. You
must follow the hierarchy in your ICD-9 Code
Book.
Unknown or
suspected Intent Guideline: If the intent is
unknown or unspecified, questionable, probable
or suspected code the intent as undetermined
E980-E989. These codes are used most often when
there is not detailed documentation.
Undetermined
Causes Guideline: When the intent is known
and the causes is not known use E928.9. These
codes should be rarely used, some cause of
injury is usually documented. E 92839 is
unspecified accident it should not be a “catch
all” it does define intent.
Late effects of
External Causes guideline: It should never be
used with a current injury. It is meant to go
with sequelae of the injury, which may occur at
any time after the injury.
Misadventure and
Complications of care guidelines: E870-876
misadventure stated by provider. E878-E879
attributes complication but no mention of
misadventure.
Terrorism
guidelines: Must be identified by government
(FBI) as terrorism. Additional assault E codes
should not be assigned.
USING THE
ALPHABETIC and TABULAR INDEXES TO THE E CODE:
Be sure to follow all cross references. Review
all includes and excludes notes. Review any
applicable descriptions in the tabular list and
take note to the fourth digit requirements.
TABLE OF DRUGS AND
CHEMICALS: This table consists of
classification of drugs and chemical substances
used to identify poisonings, overdoses, wrong
substance given or taken or intoxication. The
table also contains a listing of external causes
of adverse effects. An adverse effect is a
pathological manifestation due to ingestion or
exposure to drugs or other chemical substances.
It is important to remember that the alphabetic
index and the tabular list and the table of drug
and chemicals, when appropriate, should all be
used together when determining the proper E code
or codes.
DEFINITIONS AND
INSTRUCTIONS BY COMMON MECHANISMS OF INJURY:
There are hundreds of ways for people to get
injured. In Pennsylvania the most common
mechanisms of injury are Motor Vehicle injuries
and fall’s and Gunshot wounds. This is according
to the PA trauma System Foundation 2006 data.
Traffic and the
Non- traffic Motor Vehicle accidents: It is
extremely important to read thoroughly the
tabular list which contains the definitions and
examples related to motor vehicle accidents.
Accidental
fall’s: The most common E-codes for the elderly
population. There are many excludes notes in
this section. There is some controversy over
the fall striking other object codes (E888.0 and
E888.1) Go back to your guideline and always use
the one that most relates to the principle
diagnosis.
Gunshots: There
is very few includes and excludes notes. Most
common E codes for 20-30 year old population.
Things to look for in the documentation is what
were they shot with and was it accidental or
intentional.
PLACE OF
OCCURRENCE: This category is for the place
where the accident occurs. There are many
examples given for each place, but pay attention
to the exclude notes. The most common used
place of occurrence E codes is E849.5 (street)
and E 849.0 (home).
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HOD Team creates a Clinical Practice
Sites/Professional Practice Experiences (PPE)
Guide
In
2008, the House of Delegates (HOD) organized
itself into six teams to focus on different
areas of the profession. The six HOD Teams are:
Environmental Scanning, Best
Practices/Standards, Professional Development
and Recognition, Volunteer and Leadership
Development, HOD Operations and Health
Information Management (HIM) Higher Education
and Workforce. The AHIMA Board of Directors sets
specific charges for each of the HOD Teams to
work on throughout the year.
One of the charges for the HOD Team on HIM Higher
Education and Workforce is to provide support and recommendations to increase
the number of clinical practice sites and opportunities for students to complete
professional practice experiences. To that end, the Team created a Clinical
Practice Sites/Professional Practice Experiences (PPE) Guide that provides
information and best practices about serving as a clinical practice site and
hosting students who are completing their required professional practice
experiences. The Guide provides specific, helpful information to: site managers,
department mentors, Component State Associations (CSA), academic programs and
students. If you are involved with or considering hosting students, take a few
minutes to review the helpful information found in the Guide. It can be accessed
in the AHIMA and State Leaders and HOD Communities of Practice and on the AHIMA
Web site by
clicking here.
Direct link to
Guide is:
http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/internal_projectplanning/bok1_043192.pdf
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Technology
Co-Chairperson Spotlight
Steve
A.
Young, RHIA graduated from Temple University’s Health
Information Management program in 2007 with a
Bachelor of Science and is currently the
Director of Health Information Management for a
360 bed long term care and physical
rehabilitation facility for the County of
Bucks. His former experiences include Temple
University Hospital, St. Christopher’s
Children’s Hospital, Diskriter, and Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia’s Biomedical
Informatics Department. Steve takes part in
PHIMA as a co-chair for the legislative and
e-health committee. He is also a member of the
Pennsylvania Electronic Health Initiative (Pa
eHI) and a co-facilitator for AHIMA’s Leadership
CoP.
Stephen has been
fortunate enough to have great mentors in his
past and current endeavors and is passing along
the experience to his interns from Gwynedd Mercy
College’s H.I.M program.
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Taking Back the ROI Request Process
How a
shared-service, release-of-information (ROI)
process helped Riddle Memorial gain control
while maintaining revenues
By Kelly Henry,
MS, RHIT, CHP
Director,
Regulatory Preparedness, HIM, MSO, Special
Projects
Riddle Memorial
Hospital
Media,
Pennsylvania
Although many
hospital leaders do not consider the
release-of-information (ROI) request process the
top priority on their action list, inadequate
ROI management can cause problems for all
involved.
Riddle Memorial
Hospital in suburban Philadelphia, Pa. realized
several years ago that they were missing out on
financial improvement opportunities and their
ROI process needed help. The issue was placed
among the hospital’s top five departmental
priorities.
Fortunately, the
organization discovered there was a better
business model for handling ROI and were
surprised at some of the benefits.
Releasing
information the old-fashioned way
Riddle Memorial
Hospital, a 207-bed hospital, records roughly
10,000 admissions, 76,000 outpatient visits,
500,000 laboratory procedures and 29,000
emergency room visits annually.
In addition to the
usual ROI requests from the business office,
physician practices, patients, health plans,
lawyers, law enforcement and research
organizations, Riddle Memorial also fields
requests from auditors on behalf of
state-mandated initiatives.
In 2004, it was
obvious to the organization that the ROI process
lacked structure. The system in place at the
time was little more than a manual “first in,
first out” method that created huge piles of
paperwork.
Tracking requests
in response to inquiries was completely manual
and extremely difficult. Fulfilling some
requests required a visit to the basement in
another building. If a requester didn’t pay
their bill, there was little to no follow-up as
there was no easy way to track unpaid invoices.
The staff had typewriters instead of computers in
place, which, of course, did not offer a strong tracking process for ROI volume,
statistics and status. The staff was at a disadvantage, simply because the
process had never been updated from the old-fashioned way.
A
“shared-service” solution that made sense
Riddle Memorial
had dedicated and engaged staff involved in the
ROI process and was not seeking to reduce staff
in the restructure, but wanted to give them the
right tools to make the process run smoother.
Receiving financial benefits was not expected,
as the primary objective was simply to gain
control.
The first priority
was to enhance the ability to process the
requests quickly and to improve efficiency by
working smarter. With the right system in place,
for example, the need to repeat the same ROI
request was eliminated. Riddle Memorial also
sought a method to easily investigate status
requests, as an effort to serve customers more
responsively. Management wanted a “dashboard”
that would show how well the hospital was doing
in terms of request volumes, turnaround times,
pending ROIs, outstanding invoices and other ROI
benchmarks.
Previous ROI
experiences led Riddle Memorial to re-think the
entire approach from the ground up. Although the
100% in-house option wasn’t efficient , there
was a reluctance to re-visit another
conventional option – complete outsourcing.
Instead, Riddle Memorial wanted to own the
process.
During the search
for a solution that fit well, Riddle Memorial
became aware of MRO Corp. in King of Prussia, Pa
and its ROI Online product, offering a
shared-service, ROI request model. As Riddle
Memorial learned more and more about the
shared-service approach, the organization could
see the value in the proposal: Riddle Memorial
would still handle the front-office functions,
while MRO would manage the back office. The
revenues would be shared.
This approach
would let Riddle Memorial keep its staff,
maintain control and, through ROI Online, gain
access to the vendor’s specialized expertise –
all of which were top criteria in selecting a
new process for release-of-information. Riddle
Memorial decided this was a perfect solution and
moved forward with installation.
The transition
to the front-office/back-office model
The new ROI
process begins with Riddle Memorial staff
opening the mail and logging requests
immediately — not when it’s time to work the
request. Performing the function of logging the
mail allows the hospital to begin tracking a
request the moment it is received. Hospital
personnel conduct the research, retrieve the
relevant information and validate that it is for
the right hospital, right date of service and
right patient.
Using a virtual
print driver from the vendor’s application,
selected records from the hospital’s document
imaging system are captured and transferred into
the online system without having to print and
scan. If the requested data is available only on
paper or microfilm, the paper or reprinted
documents from film are scanned using one of two
desktop scanners.
The vendor handles
the rest of the process. After confirming the
information is correct, the company conducts all
records distribution, either in printed or
electronic format. It manages the ROI billing,
including collections, and fields telephone
inquiries from requesters such as attorneys,
insurance companies and record retrieval
services. In addition, the vendor supplies and
maintains the software at no cost to Riddle
Memorial.
The hospital’s
online release-of-information process went live
in August 2004. Implementation required only a
few computers, two scanners and the vendor’s
software package. The cost for startup was
minimal and did not require a large, up-front
investment into a traditional ROI software
package.
The biggest
obstacle had nothing to do with the ROI process
itself. It was a simple matter of training. At
the time, Riddle Memorial was operating in a
mainframe environment, so staff needed to be
introduced to some basic principles of the PC
and mouse operation that most of us take for
granted.
A win-win-win
situation
Before
implementing the online release-of-information
system, the process was poorly organized, and
hospital staff could not easily determine how
many ROI requests were pending for processing.
Now the status of every request can be tracked.
With the new
shared-service process in place, the entire
process is far more efficient. As a surprise to
the hospital, even with the revenue sharing,
Riddle Memorial is bringing in the same amount
of revenue as before the new system was in
place. The vendor’s expertise in billing and
collections has positively impacted gross
revenues.
ROI Online has
successfully assisted Riddle Memorial Hospital
transform the ROI process at its facility,
allowing hospital staff to move on to other
priorities while providing excellent customer
service.
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CPHIMA
Regional Report
Submitted by
Jennifer Zimmerman, RHIA
Public Relations Chairperson
CPHIMA
held its Quarterly Education Session on March
20, 2009 at Select Medical Corporation in
Mechanicsburg, PA. We started the day off with
a panel discussion on Clinical Documentation
Improvement (CDI). The panel members were from
local hospitals and shared their CDI strategies
with the group. Panel members included; Michele
Johnson RN, BSN Documentation Specialist
Supervisor, Wellspan Health, Trish Stoltzfus,
CCS, Manager Data Collection, Vicki Marth, RN,
MS, Manager, Outcomes Management
Department, PinnacleHealth Hospitals
and Pat Swetland, RHIT Manager, HIS Coding
Services, Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
Following lunch and the CPHIMA business meeting
Richard C. Seneca, Esquire took the floor and
gave the group an update on privacy law and
understanding the new federal red flag rules.
Upcoming Events:
CPHIMA has
education sessions slated for the following
dates;
-
June 12, 2009
- Normandie Ridge, York, PA
-
September 18,
2009 - Lancaster General Hospital, Burle
Industry, Lancaster, PA
-
December 18,
2009 – Hershey Hotel, Hershey, PA
Additional
information about CPHIMA, our newsletter and
registration information for upcoming
educational sessions and Coding Roundtable
information can be found on our NEW
website!
www.phima.org/CPHIMA.htm
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SEPHIMA
Regional Report
Greetings from
Southeastern Pennsylvania.
We are coming down
the home stretch for this year’s board which
included:
President:
Fran Guiles, RHIA, CTR
President-Elect: Karen Jadach, RHIA, CCS
Past
President: Cathy A Flite, M.Ed., RHIA
Secretary:
Renee Silverman, RHIT, CCS
Treasurer:
Dasantila Sherifi, MBA, RHIA
Committee
Chairpersons:
Bylaws: Joyce
Garozzo, MS, RHIA, CCS
Education
Arrangements: Eileen Lambert, RHIT, CCS
Finance:
Karen Jadach, RHIA, CCS
Membership:
Geralynn Bryers, RHIA, CTR
Nominating:
Cathy Flite, M.Ed., RHIA
Technology:
Gerard Harter, RHIT, CTR
Public
Relations: Denise Dunyak, MS, RHIA
Advocacy:
Wannetta Edwards, MS, RHIA
President’s
Message
Submitted by Fran
Guiles, RHIA, CTR
Happy Spring! Time is flying by, and it’s so
hard to believe that my term as your President is winding down very quickly.
I would like to thank the membership for the wonderful opportunity to serve the
association.
Our Board and
Committee Chairs have been really busy this
year. Just take a look at this great
newsletter our Public Relations Chair put
together. The Education-Arrangements
Committee has given the membership three
fabulous education sessions and working on our
annual for June. Joyce Garozzo is
busy working on Bylaws changes and thanks to
Gere Bryers, our membership numbers are
increasing. Our
President-Elect, Karen Jadach was successful
with recruiting two of our Board Members to run
for a PHIMA Office, and I would like to
congratulate Denise Dunyak, incoming Secretary
for PHIMA. Our 2009-2010 Ballot is
underway for election of officers to SePHIMA’s
Board of Directors. With our new website
enhancements on line voting will be available.
Stay tuned for details.
As
President-Elect of PHIMA, I represented the
organization by attending the AHIMA Winter Teams
Talks on March 23rd. and Hill Day on
March 24th in Washington, DC. I
traveled the Yellow Brick Road to Washington
with Joyce Garozzo, PHIMA Delegate and SePHIMA
Bylaws Chair. Denise will tell you all about
Capitol Hill Day. But I just want to say that
Wannetta Edwards, SePHIMA’s Advocacy Chair, was
key to inspiring many of us to attend. Her Hill
Day presentation during our Holiday session was
excellent, but the scope and magnitude of
actually being present at such an event is an
experience that cannot be described to its
fullest.
Winter Team Talks, as well
as Capitol Hill Day was well attended by
Pennsylvania. The entire day can be described as
an awesome interaction of top-flight ideas and
ideals from AHIMA executives, state leaders and
members throughout the nation, creating an
eclectic mix of aspirations in support of our
development.
We got started around
8:30am with a welcome by Vera Rulon, AHIMA
President. Linda Kloss, AHIMA Executive
Director presented highlights of the Health IT
provisions of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA), what AHIMA will be
working on, and what the focus should be for the
Component State Associations (CSAs). On
February 17, President Obama signed the “ARRA of
2009”. The final agreement contained $19
billion for health information technology and
health information exchange, $2 billion of which
is designated for the Office of the National
Coordinator for efforts toward health exchange,
standards analysis, and testing and
administration of funds. $17 billion is
dedicated for HIT and HIE incentives.
State-Designated Entities
will receive grants to facilitate health
information exchange and the use of health
information through enhancing participation in
HIE. AHIMA will continue to lead the State
Leaders HIE consensus best practice project.
Component State Associations should redouble
their efforts with state and local HIE
organizations. Visit the website at
www.slhie.org to learn how the states are
doing. AHIMA will work to encourage accredited
programs to be positioned to secure grants and
the State Associations should focus to support
the HIM education programs in their states and
develop a state level HIM workforce plan.
Privacy and Security: “HIPAA II”- 55 pages will
include increased duties for Business
Associates, PHR vendors now covered, new
enforcement and penalties to name a few. Here
we go again, Stay Tuned!!! Should you wish to
read the ARRA,
http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr1ENR/pdf/BILLS-111hr1ENR.pdf.
Begins on page 114.
AHIMA
President-Elect, Rita Bowen, got us going with a
group discussion and reporting exercise.
Scenarios of the future for HIM in 2015 were
presented. The most extreme scenarios were
“Ground Hog Day “and “Stairway to Heaven”.
“Ground Hog Day “ is an economy that has low or
no growth, limited interest in HIM education and
workforce, multiple interfaces that are costly
to develop and maintain. What AHIMA would need
to succeed in this world would be training HIM
professionals for CIO positions and more master
level positions. We will need to promote
ourselves with vendors and more education on
Genotyping. The major impact would be loss of
credibility and loss of membership. “Stairway
to Heaven” is coordinated care across the
continuum (patient focused), uniform compliance
with data/interoperability standards, all health
care workers have a higher info competence and
increased competition to AHIMA from new entrants
in the HIM space. Stairway to Heaven focused
on nirvana: a state of healthcare where
consumers were in the driver’s seat able to
access healthcare anywhere, anytime with true
transparency to information about providers.
Having access to the best care where geography
truly has no borders. There would be global
standardization so that no matter where a
consumer is treated, key patient information is
available. Much discussion also surrounded
standard care protocols that are taught in
medical school. It was a fun exercise and in
the end, the AHIMA staff collected our
responses.
After our
networking lunch we learned about the Triumph
Awards Program and the Awards Committee. We
were very excited that Denise Dunyak was one of
4 members to be elected to the committee to
select individuals from the applicants to
receive the 2009 Triumph Awards. Next the
House of Delegates Teams presented their
accomplishments and future focus. I would like
to mention that the HIM Higher Education and
Workforce HOD Team developed a Clinical Practice
Sites/Professional Practice Experience (PPE)
Guide. This will be ready for download from
the AHIMA CoP shortly.
We ended the
Winter Team Talks session with a presentation
and discussion of AHIMA’s 2009 Key
Initiatives. AHIMA will be a positive force
for ICD-10. Visit the new web page at
http://www.ahima.org/icd10 and sign up for
the I-10 Newsletter at
http://www.ahima.org/images/newsletters/ICDTen/subscribe.html.
For ICD-10 there will be no additional exam
requirement, additional CEU’s will be required,
requirements may vary by credential, exact
number of additional CE’s TBD and the reporting
timeframe is 2013.
My goal was to cover the
highlights of AHIMA Winter Team Talks and I hope
you will be able to find a little something that
stirs your interest and some education of topics
that were unfamiliar. There is so much more,
and I strongly suggest you visit the AHIMA
website for updates on the wonderful intuitive
discussions of these subjects. So much
information, so little time!!!
On March 27th, our spring education
included a discussion on Interventional radiology by Linda Holtzman, MHA, RHIA,
CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-H with Clarity Coding and a discussion on Medical Identity
Theft by Laurinda Harman, PhD, RHIA from Temple University. The session was
attended by 55 members.
According to Gere
Bryers, membership chair, our recent membership
drive resulted in 233 members broken into the
following categories:
Active 185 – up
from 157
Seniors 3 – up
from 2
Students 45 – up
from 41
Karen Jadach
served as liaison to the PHIMA nominating
committee. Denise Dunyak was on the ballot for
secretary and Wannetta Edwards for Delegate.
Wannetta Edwards, Advocacy Chair, was successful
in her goal to increase participation in AHIMA HILL Day (see separate article in
Keystoner). She also reports that AHIMA kicked off a “Congressional Education
Program” which was described in the Feb. 26 AHIMA Advantage e-Alert. Members
are encouraged to send letters to their representatives using the preformatted
letters in the AHIMA Advocacy Action Center. It’s NEVER too late to educate our
senators and congressman. See My AHIMA Advocacy Action Center for details.
For more information, visit the SEPHIMA website.
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NWPHIMA Regional Report
Notice to all
North Western PHIMA (NWPHIMA) Members
As of March 22,
2009, PHIMA has received official notice the
local region Northwestern of PHIMA has been
disbanded. If you have any questions or
concerns about this decision please contact
Sandy Frey (sandyfrey9127@msn.com)
or WPHIMA President, Michele Bartholomew (mmb78@comcast.net)
Former NWPHIMA
Members are welcome to participate in any WPHIMA
activities. Feel free to check out the website
www.wphima.org or the President Michele
Bartholomew for information at
mmb78@comcast.net
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Pennsylvania College of Technology
New Health
Information Degree Tailor-Made for Career
Enhancement
She
has an associate degree from a well-respected
institution and a rewarding job with one of the
region’s top employers, so what could be more
attractive to Kathryn M. Barbera? How about a
front-row seat for future advancement in one of
the nation’s fastest-growing fields – without
compromising her current position?
Developed
especially for working professionals and offered
exclusively in a convenient distance-learning
format, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s new
four-year health information management major is
the first of its kind to be offered by a public
institution in Pennsylvania.
And for Barbera,
who obtained her two-year degree in health
information technology from the college in May
2007 (along with a certificate as a coding
specialist) – and who now will be able to earn a
bachelor’s without forsaking her job to return
to school – it’s a perfect fit.
A full-time
employee of Susquehanna Health, she skillfully
makes sense of the diagnosis codes and billing
for an increasing number of physicians’
services, an avalanche of data that allows for
insurance reimbursement and statistical research
and comprises medical record-keeping in this
electronic age.
Once considered
the stuff of high-tech fantasy – enabling a
vacationing doctor to remotely access his office
files after being paged by an ailing patient,
for instance – health information technology is
among those futuristic careers whose time
definitely is now.
“Employers are
looking for more-educated and certified staff,”
Barbera said, noting that both the volume and
confidentiality of patients’ health information
require absolute precision and responsibility.
That need becomes even more prevalent as the
profession moves from the decades-old diagnostic
codes (which assign specific values to
everything from the flu to heart failure) to a
new set of numbers aimed at global uniformity of
data collection and storage.
With the same
responsiveness that it employed when recently
adding “green” construction and computer-network
security to its curricular offerings, the new
baccalaureate major again puts Penn College in
fine position to readily guide its alumni into
meaningful postgraduate employment. “The creation of
regional, national and international health
information networks has brought a phenomenal
potential for new jobs on the horizon,” said
Daniel K. Christopher, assistant professor of
health information in the college’s School of
Business and Computer Technologies. “In order to
improve patient care, physicians will need
access to information. It’s a great career
outlook.”
The U.S.
Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
projects a 49-percent growth in the number of
health information management positions by next
year, making it one of the 10 fastest-growing
health-care occupations in the nation. Those
jobs – in nursing homes and hospitals, law firms
and insurance companies – represent a wise move
for qualified employees.
A new graduate
with an associate degree in health information
technology can earn a salary in the
$25,000-to-$30,000 range, Christopher explained;
a bachelor’s degree in information management
can raise that average to as high as $50,000.
Recently
discussing the new major as it was heading for
endorsement by the college’s Curriculum
Committee and approval by the administration,
Christopher and his deans in the School of
Business and Computer Technologies said the
four-year degree was “the next logical step.”
The number of two-year graduates in the
health-information field has reached “critical
mass,” they said, making it the right time to
offer the heightened education that the
explosively expanding field demands.As explained by Christopher; Edward A. Henninger,
dean of business and computer technologies; and Francesca M. Troutman, assistant
dean of business and computer technologies; the new major is designed for
graduates of Penn College’s associate-degree program (or similar two-year
programs at other institutions) and others in the field who carry the Registered
Health Information Technician credential.
Attainment of the
four-year diploma requires fewer than 70 credits
beyond the two-year degree. By taking only two
or three online courses at a time, that can be
accomplished in two years – a boon for Barbera
and other working professionals juggling
continuing education with the need for a regular
paycheck.
“It’s a great
program,” said Barbera, who started her
Susquehanna Health employment as a unit
secretary around the time she began classes in
the Fall 2004 semester. “It’s all distance
learning and it won’t be that many more classes.
I wouldn’t have been able to do this without
Penn College.”
The Central
Pennsylvania Health Information Management
Association, which serves the middle corridor of
the state from Altoona to Lancaster and points
north, is supportive of the new major,
recognizing the need for a four-year degree and
offering to be represented on its corporate
advisory board. As the first class of students
enrolls for the Fall 2009 semester, the major
also is expected to be spotlighted at a May
18-20 meeting of the Pennsylvania Health
Information Management Association in State
College.
For more
information about majors in the School of
Business and Computer Technologies, visit
www.pct.edu/schools/bct
or call 570-327-4517. For general information
about Penn College, visit
www.pct.edu, e-mail
admissions@pct.edu
or call toll-free 800-367-9222.
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