HIM Briefings

If the October 1, 2014, implementation date for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS is not altered by the time this is published, there will be 18 months left until the transition.

What better time to gauge HIPAA compliance than now with the January publishing of HHS' major HIPAA omnibus final rule.

Will ICD-10-CM/PCS wreak havoc on coding productivity?

Q. Can paper patient records be kept in a public storage unit? The storage company we are considering has a digital entry at its main gate, and we would have a keyed lock on the storage unit door.

Coders will take more time to code records in ICD-10-CM/PCS than they do now in ICD-9-CM/PCS. This much, the industry knows.

When HIM professionals at Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, looked into its success rate for physician response to coding queries, it knew it needed to do a better job.

Privacy officers must ensure their hospital removes potential patient identifiers from data sets used for reasons outside of treatment, payment, and healthcare ­operations, privacy experts say.

In the coding world, it's a never-ending clash that can cause compliance concerns-facility vs. professional.