(This guest blog was written by Kayla M. Zirbes of The College of Saint Scholastica. Zirbes is an AHIMA student advisory council member and AHIMA Hill Day 2013 participant.)As a member of the American Health Information Management Association's Student Advisory Council (SAC), I have benefited from many unique opportunities to become active within ...

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 ...

(Editor's Note: This guest blog was written by Susan M. Lucci, RHIT, CHPS, CMT, AHDI-F, who is president of Privacy Officer Services LLC and an at-large director on the AHDI National Leadership Board. She can be reached at slucci128@hotmail.com.)In the wake of superstorm Sandy and the enormous devastation brought to the area, including the ...

(Editor's Note: This guest blog was written by Julie A. Dooling, RHIT, a director of HIM Solutions for the American Health Information Management Association.) We live in a world where data and information are collected in many systems throughout our health care organizations, and most are often integrated into an EHR. Sharing information inside ...

In recent years, the government and private payers have taken a firm position on fraud and abuse. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to suspend payments when there are ''credible allegations of fraud.'' It's increasingly important to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing.Adding ...

  At the recent AHIMA ICD-10 Summit, one message was completely clear: The most important element of ICD-10 preparation process is clinical documentation assessment and improvement. And the best news from the summit? Any efforts you expend now toward better documentation for ICD-10  also will deliver improvements in ICD-9. Here are ...

Inspector General Daniel Levinson outlined important compliance issues for health care providers before the Health Care Compliance Association April 30. His keynote speech is now posted in video, audio and transcript form on the OIG website.''I'm pleased to share with you that we're doing better for our taxpayers, and I think for the healthcare ...

A press release issued by the American Medical Association states that the AMA and state and national medical specialty societies sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expressing serious concern about an onslaught of overlapping regulations that affect physicians. The AMA cited the value-based ...

It’s hard to look your best when you are wearing too many hats.  While the business of health care struggles in a depressed economy and a revenue cycle containing a growing number of under and uninsured, pending government regulations such as HITECH, the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10 conversions have produced, for many,  a ...

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) proudly announced that the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) granted accreditation to AHIMA's Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) and Certified Coding Specialist-Physician-based (CCS-P) certification programs. Earlier this year, NCCA accredited AHIMA's Registered ...