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EHR Reaches Tipping Point.
How Can HIM Professionals Contribute?
"When we look back on the summer of 2003, I believe
we will say this is the year the electronic health record
(EHR) reached its tipping point," says Leslie Fox, President
and CEO of Care Communications. The tipping point is
that magic moment when an idea, trend or behavior crosses
a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire.
"If the EHR has indeed reached its tipping point, it's
important that individual Health Information Management
(HIM) professionals think about how they can contribute
to the EHR's advancement in their own organizations,"
says Patty Thierry, Vice President of Operations and
CIO at Care Communications.
Thierry suggests that HIM professionals:
- Educate other managers and administration as to
the importance of HIM involvement in EHR activities;
- Ask to be involved in those activities;
- Play an active role in creating the vision, designing
the change, and supporting the workforce through
the transition;
- Monitor the development of EHR related legislation
and standards; and
- Assess and improve their own relationships with
key stakeholders.
R ead more about what brought the EHR to its tipping
point and how HIM professionals can contribute to its
development, please see The EHR
Reaches 'Tipping Poing': Are you Ready to Lead?
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Complying with the HIPAA
Security Rule: Step #1
Has your organization begun efforts to comply with
the HIPAA Security Rule? If not, it's important to start
now says HIPAA expert and CARE consultant, Gwen Hughes.
One of the first steps to compliance is the appointment
of a security officer. The security rule says the organization
must identify a security official responsible for the
development and implementation of policies and procedures
required by the rule (154.308(a)(2)).
There is no requirement that the security officer position
be full time. If development and implementation of the
administrative, technical and physical safeguard standards
can be successfully developed and implemented by someone
working on them part time, the standard will be met.
To assist you in defining the role of the security officer
in your organization, a sample
HIPAA security officer job description has been
provided. Feel free to use it to customize your own
job description and to guide your organization in the
appointment of its own security officer.
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What Happened to My Case
Mix?
"When the case mix drops, many administrators assume
there's a problem with coding. But a falling case mix
may be caused by any number of factors," says coding
expert Diane Willard. For example:
A well known orthopedic physician may have
moved his practice, taking his hip replacement business
to a hospital on the other side of town.
A procedure that was previously performed on an
inpatient basis may now be performed on an outpatients
basis
There may have been changes to the registration
process that resulted in incorrect admitting diagnosis
or payer information. Subsequent claim rejections
may have caused backlogs and a roller coaster effect
where the case mix is up and then it's down.
" A savvy administrator will not assume a fall in
case mix is a coding problem, but rather will appoint
an interdisciplinary team to evaluate the cause and
develop an action plan," adds Kathy Johnson, Director
of Compliance and Consulting Services at CARE. Members
of this team should include representatives from patient
registration, HIM, patient accounts, nursing, and
the medical staff, for example.
Among the factors this interdisciplinary team should
consider are changes in market share, physician mix,
medical practice, codes and DRGs, registration and
coding processes. We have provided a case mix
checklist and action planning form to assist your
team in such efforts. |
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Publisher:
Leslie Fox, MA, RHIA
Editor:
Gwen Hughes, RHIA, CHP
Editorial Board:
Sue Danforth, RHIA
Roberta Peters, MS, RHIA
Patty Thierry, MBA, RHIA, CCS
Dianne Willard, MBA, RHIA, CCS-P
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