Date: April 12
Presenter: Jerry Simmons
Time: 2 PM PST / 5 PM EST
Registration Close: April 7
CEC Given: N/A

How much do you invest each year in dictionaries, specialty word books, and resources that assist you with documentation research? How many hours do you spend chasing down new terms, trying to find the name and address of an unknown physician, or looking for the right expression for something you need to transcribe? The need to have accurate, up-to-date clinical information at your fingertips is more critical now than ever before. In response to this need in our professional marketplace, AHDI and InterFix, LLC, are proud to introduce you to Benchmark KB—a subscription-based, online resource that delivers a wide array of research tools via one user interface. If you want a reliable, one-stop resource for the things you look for every day, then join Jerry Simmons of InterFix for a walk through the KB and a peek at what you’re missing!

Register Now!

With less than a week until Advocacy Summit 2010, the Dewey Square Group (DSG) is busily working to schedule as many meetings as possible with legislators. Two things to keep in mind–this is an election year with a lot at stake, so it is more likely we will be meeting with actual legislators, not staffers. However, on the flip side, health reform is looming prominently and may not be resolved by the time we are on the Hill, making for some heavy competition. Our messaging will be succinct, clear, and relevant to accelerating EHR adoption and the practical use of capturing and exchanging health information to improve patient safety and clinical care and to reduce costs. We will also be promoting the growth of environmentally friendly, digital, home-based jobs.

On Monday, March 15, AHDI and MTIA submitted an official comment to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONCHIT) on the proposed regulations for “meaningful use” and EHR certification. In addition, over 75 AHDI and MTIA members submitted comments. These comments have helped set the stage for the messaging we will take to the Hill, calling for CMS and ONCHIT to explicitly recognize in the regulations that the dictation-transcription process is a viable method of data capture that can be used to achieve “meaningful use.” To read the official AHDI-MTIA comment, click here.

We are excited to announce that DSG has secured a room on Capitol Hill that we will be able to use for a briefing and orientation on the morning of Wednesday, March 24, before meeting with legislators. Members also will have access to the room throughout the entire day.

For anyone interested in attending the AHDI national board of directors meeting, it will take place on Tuesday, March 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Advocacy Summit 2010 host hotel, the Marriott Crystal City in the Potomac Ballroom, Salon F. The meeting room will have open gallery seating for approximately 20 people.

We encourage you to come to Advocacy Summit and to ask your colleagues to do the same, as this is a critical time for defining our value proposition. If you do come, we will be sure that your experience is meaningful and impactful. Click here to learn more about Advocacy Summit. If you have any questions concerning attending Advocacy Summit or anything else, please contact AHDI/MTIA staff member Greg Doggett (gdoggett@ahdionline.org, 859-512-3284).

Three Kaiser Permanente hospitals in northern California recently completed implementation of electronic health records, completing the organization’s enterprise-wide inpatient and ambulatory adoption of EHRs that started with the first implementation in 2004.

As part of the initiative, Kaiser went live with personal health records software in 2007, and more than 3 million members logged in 27 million times in 2009 alone, according to the Oakland, Calif.-based organization. Outpatient EHR implementation in 431 facilities was complete in April 2008.

Twenty-four of Kaiser’s 36 hospitals have attained Stage 7, the highest level, on the HIMSS Analytics scale to measure IT adoption. Kaiser expects many, if not all, of the remaining hospitals to reach Stage 7 during 2010. Kaiser’s core EHR vendor is Epic Systems Corp., Verona, Wis. From Health Data Management.

The American Hospital Association says the regulations proposed by federal administrators to use stimulus payments to encourage widespread adoption of electronic health-record systems may actually discourage many providers from even trying to use the technology.

The government’s proposed list of 23 measures to demonstrate so-called “meaningful use” of EHR systems is so daunting that even hospitals that already have long-established systems may not qualify for stimulus payments because regulators have proposed hospitals meet every criteria before they become eligible to receive the federal grants, according to the AHA. Read more at Modern Healthcare.

Lisa Grabert, senior associate director for policy at the American Hospital Association, will speak at the 5th annual AHDI/MTIA Advocacy Summit on Thursday, March 25. Cynthia Brown, vice president of government affairs for the American Medical Association, will also speak at the event. For more information about the Advocacy Summit, including details on hotel and registration, please click here. If you have any questions about the event, contact Greg Doggett at (859) 512-3284 or gdoggett@ahdionline.org.

Date: March 16, 2010
Presenter: Susan M Lucci, RHIT, CMT, AHDI-F
Time: 3:00 PM PST / 6:00 PM EST
Duration: 1 Hour
Registration Close: March 11, 2010
Cost: FREE
CE Given: N/A

Register now to discuss current events in healthcare, advocacy and board initiatives.

AHDI is reevaluating its recredentialing program to keep MTs moving forward.

So much of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Intregrity’s (AHDI’s) messaging and industry advocacy has been centered on the critical need for this sector to embrace professional credentialing–why it’s important not only to the individual, but also to the value proposition we are making to health care about the role our work force does and can continue to play in health data capture. Certainly, to a health care system that places a high value on allied health credentials and scope of practice standards, medical transcription has been an invisible contributor to the landscape. Many fear we will continue to be overlooked and undervalued by our end-users until we are willing and able to “hang” with everyone else in allied health when it comes to training and credentials. AHDI has and will continue to beat that drum to anyone who will listen, especially to MT employers, who are beginning to pull alongside that vision and collaborate with us toward a marketplace requirement for credentials.

But what we don’t spend enough time discussing is what happens after the certified medical transcriptionist (CMT) exam–what our ongoing objectives are for recredentialing. Most are probably vaguely aware that a CMT is required to earn continuing education credits (CECs) to maintain that status, but to what end? What is and/or should be the objective of an association recredentialing program? Is it just a matter of collecting credits in random content areas, or is there a goal behind that effort?

Click here to read the full post at advanceweb.com

Does the healthcare industry really need eight lobbyists for every member of Congress? Apparently so, as 4,525 lobbyists fanned out across Capitol Hill last year, in an effort to influence healthcare reform, according to new data from the Center for Public Integrity, which funds in-depth, investigative journalism. A total of 1,750 healthcare companies and organizations shelled out $1.2 billion to deploy the massive army of lobbyists, and it resulted in “money well spent,” according to the Center’s analysis. Read more at Fierce Healthcare.

AHDI is excited to announce that Jay Vance, CMT, has stepped into the role of moderator/administrator of the AHDI Lounge. Jay is an established presence in the online community with a long history of social networking, blogging, and engagement in forum dialogue. We look forward to Jay’s contributions to the AHDI Lounge and the dialogue and discussions his participation and oversight will generate. If you haven’t visited the Lounge lately, check it out at the link above. Lounge guests are currently discussing the value of credentialing, meaningful use, and advocacy. Drop by any time!

Last Thursday, over 60 AHDI and MTIA members joined a webinar presented by AHDI/MTIA CEO Peter Preziosi and Scott Shalett of the Dewey Square Group on the federal government’s proposed regulations for “meaningful use” and EHR certification, the regulations’ potential impact on the medical transcription sector, and the efforts being undertaken by our associations to position the sector for success in the rapidly changing health IT landscape, including the upcoming Advocacy Summit from March 23 to 25 in Washington, DC. If you missed this webinar, click here to listen to a recording. If you are interested in learning more about the Advocacy Summit or attending this important event, click here for more information, including details on registration and accommodations.

HITECH compliance for business associates (BAs) has come and gone. The date for BAs to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule and the use and disclosures provision of the privacy rule was February 17. Further, breach notification enforcement begins February 22.

So where does your organization stand? Are you ready? Your BAs? We can give you a pretty good idea after seeing the results of HCPro’s HIPAA and HITECH survey that was rolled out the past two weeks. It attracted nearly 600 respondents, including mostly HIPAA compliance officers and HIM directors.

For starters, if your organization has done something with its HIPAA compliance program in light of the HITECH, you’re in the majority: 89% said they’ve responded. Read more at HealthLeadersMedia.com.