HIM Briefings

Q. If an organization’s human resources officer is also the plan administrator for the organization’s group health plan (self-insured), does that individual have the right under HIPAA to access records of high-dollar pharmacy/medical claims for the purpose of targeting the insured for wellness programs or other alternative treatment plans?

Medical Records Briefing catches up on computer-assisted coding (CAC) with Deloris ­Farthing, RHIA, CHDA, director of HIM for Hays (Kan.) Medical Center.
 

Editor's note: Medical Records Briefing (MRB) catches up this month with Monica Pappas, RHIA, president of MPA ­Consulting in Long Beach, Calif., and an MRB advisory board member, to discuss physician queries.

At the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS), questions on physician queries are never few and far between. Although AHIMA has published a couple briefs on the topic over the last decade, questions have still remained about how to implement a compliant and effective query process.

The Joint Commission recently introduced the Focused Standards Assessment (FSA) tool and the risk icon (R) to identify:

Editor's note: The commentary in this article was originally presented in the HCPro, Inc., February 7 audio conference, "The Pediatric Medical Record: Opportunities for Documentation Improvement." Learn more about the audio conference at http://tinyurl.com/bbh9yl5.

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.

In the world of computer-assisted coding (CAC), things can get super competitive.