In anticipation of the HIMSS 2013 Annual Conference and Exhibition to be held March 3 to 7 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, ADVANCE interviewed Bonnie Cassidy, MPA, RHIA, FAHIMA, FHIMSS, senior director of HIM Innovation at Nuance and AHIMA approved ICD-10-CM/PCS trainer. Cassidy spent the majority of her career on the ...

(This guest blog was written from AHIMA 2012 by Sandra Kersten, MPH, RHIA, who is AHIMA director of HIM solutions.) Three presentations on release of information (ROI) issues were a focus of Wednesday's educational track at AHIMA's 84th annual Convention and Exhibit in Chicago.Past AHIMA President Rita Bowen, MA, RHIA, CHPS, SSGB, shared her ...

In an April 20 press release, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) announced that it discovered a breach of patient information, which resulted when a document sent to an individual outside of UAMS for analysis of billing charges was not properly de-identified. A UAMS physician sent financial data to an individual who was not ...

In a letter last week directed to Georgina Verdugo, JD, LLM, MPA, director of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) responded to the July 14 proposed privacy rule changes pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). AHIMA President ...

Texas Health Resources and Children's Medical Center announced the ability to electronically exchange medical information on a mutually-treated patient. This is now possible through a secure health information exchange product from Epic Systems Corp., and is the first such exchange in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The ability to share such ...

With all the recent talk about privacy and security changes in the HITECH Act, you'd think: 1) People would finally learn it's spelled ''HIPAA,'' not ''HIPPA''; and 2) Facilities would stop being so careless. Not the case. Misguided ''HIPPA'' use still abounds and, even more disconcerting, some organizations can't seem to lock a strategy down. ...

In another HITECH milestone, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has posted a list of covered entities (CEs) that reported breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. The list, available to the public via OCR's Web site, fulfills an obligation outlined in last year's HITECH Act. CEs have been required to report such breaches since last ...

Yes, readers of the HIM world, it was 1 year ago today that President Obama took that fateful pen to paper and signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), paving the way for electronic health records (EHRs) and all the perks and headaches associated with them. The push for EHRs is part of the Health Information Technology for ...

It's Friday--time to catch up on the news. I was hoping to share a delightful health-related story with you, but there were too many good ones, and who am I to single out? So, on to a list we go; I'll leave it up to you to pick and prune according to your preferences. CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explores record access issues ...

While researching for my encryption article, ''Are You Secured?'' I was struck by what I would consider a loophole in the breach notification rules. According to the new regulations, when a security breach or theft occurs, the covered entity or business associate must inform the affected patients. If more than 500 people are affected, the ...