HIM Briefings

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Here is a complete index of all the Medical Records Briefing articles from 2012.

It has been quite a year in the privacy world, hasn't it? The OCR website has reported 500 breaches of unsecured PHI affecting 500 or more individuals, totaling more than 12 million patients. There has been an increase in HIPAA-related criminal sentences involving jail time. And private lives are no longer private.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) wants improved and unified health information governance to standardize EHR use. AHIMA says the move will lead to technology that provides better, more efficient patient care.