The July 2013 MRB article I wrote discussed the importance of competency and skills testing in the workplace relative to new and evolving roles in the HIM department. In this issue, we discuss "not knowing what you don't know." In other words, there is a significant knowledge gap about the importance of EDMS in EHRs.
Eleven years ago, when hospitals and other healthcare facilities were on the cusp of the new HIPAA Privacy Rule, Kathleen A. Frawley, JD, MS, RHIA, FAHIMA, spoke words that were prophetic.
Most soon-to-be HIM professionals fresh out of college want nothing more than to know what's going on inside the HIM director or manager's head. After all, it would help to know what a potential interviewer is thinking when you pop into that chair for your first interview for a potential HIM job, wouldn't it?
Also known as the "mega rules," the omnibus final rules are clarifications and finalizations of the HIPAA rules of 2003, the HITECH rules of 2008, and the incorporation of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) rules into the Privacy and Security rules. These are not sweeping changes, as many describe, but clarifications. In most cases, what are now final rules are best practices that organizations should already be following.
HIM directors can always do more to gear up for the super transition into ICD-10 next year. In fact, one way you can begin preparing is to pinpoint specific elements in ICD-9 that already exist in the record and will be documentation and coding musts once the new code set arrives.
