AHDI House of Delegates Online Meeting

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 – 6:00 – 8:00 pm EDT (3:00 – 5:00 pm PDT)

The 2^nd quarter House of Delegates Meeting was called to order by Bonnie Monico, CMT, AHDI-F, Speaker of the House 2009.  All attendees and gallery were welcomed.

Review of Medical Transcription Week Campaign

Lea Sims, CMT, AHDI-F, AHDI Director of Professional Programs, went over the plans for Medical Transcription Week Campaign.  There will be posters for download on the AHDI website and other information at the AHDI website.  We need to promote our profession and its concepts and be proactive in advocating for current and future values in advancing health care’s goals for EHR adoption.

In the months of April and May 2010 only, there will be a $100 discount given courtesy of AHDI and TRS Institute on a Speech Recognition Technology (SRT) Training Course.

Status of RMT/CMT Credentialing Program

Lea Sims also reported that the Credentialing Program will be undergoing some changes towards the end of the year and gave several examples of how the testing may be structured as well as the possibility of taking the exam online.  Further updates will be given as details are given.

Update on Leadership Summit and Evolving Good Governance Models

Barb Marques, CMT, AHDI-F, AHDI President-Elect, and Bonnie Monico gave updates on the Leadership Summit at the Advocacy Summit and evolving governance models being developed by the HOD Lead Team and the Blueprint for Great Governance Committee.  There will be several face-to-face and virtual Town Hall Meetings scheduled that members are strongly encouraged to attend so that all voices can be heard:

Face-to-Face meetings:

– Florida – May

– Oregon – June

– Colorado – June

Online Webinars:

–Tuesday, May 4

–Wednesday, May 26

–Monday, June 14

–Wednesday, July 14

Membership Recruitment and Retention Efforts – Survey in coordination with Membership Advisory Workgroup (MAW)

Linda Brady, CAE – Director of Member Relations, gave an update of survey(s) being developed through the assistance of members of the MAW that will be given to new members, retaining members, and members who have dropped their memberships.

The meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m. Eastern time

What was the significance of February 17?

Susan Lucci, CMT, RHIT, AHDI-F, AHDI President, reminded us it’s the one-year anniversary of the HITECH Act and the new HIPAA rules are now in effect.

The HITECH Act does several things:

• Extends the reach of HIPAA privacy and security rules
• Imposes breach notification requirements on covered entities and business associates (that’s you!)
• Limits many uses at disclosure of PHI
• Increases individual’s rights related to PHI
• Increases enforcement and penalties for privacy and security violations

Get prepared, don’t be left behind, or be the weak target!

Many companies will suffer needlessly or go under once they have one bad breach. If it seems like a reasonable security measure, implement it. There are no specifics when it comes to data security written in the law.

Identify weaknesses in your security plan. Be objective about your risk analysis. Make every single decision with patient privacy in mind. We have a moral obligation to protect the privacy of the patients that we work with. If you are not sure what the new rules are and what you need to do NOW to be in compliance, go to AHDI and obtain the Manual of Ethical Best Practices for the Healthcare Documentation Sector. An MT version will be available soon at the member rate of $40.

Become familiar with the Health Story Project. Visit their website and attend educational opportunities. Nick Mahurin, CEO, InfraWare, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Health Story Project and will be presenting at the AHDI-West Conference in Phoenix, AZ, April 17.

AHDI’s Executive Director, Peter Preziosi, PhD encouraged us to stay externally focused and be an ambassador for the association and its mission.

As the “keepers” of document integrity, this association needs to develop an atmosphere of trust so that our members can believe in and trust their association to provide them with the appropriate answers and opportunities. The most successful organizations provide a wide range of opportunities that will develop and enhance our members’ professional growth.

We need to be the knowledge brokers for all aspects of the profession. We also need to provide support for the creation of relevant content, integrate online and face-to-face networking opportunities. Listening to our members’ needs and focusing on how we can best meet those needs or create/broker opportunities for them to address those needs.

What is 2010 going to bring for MTs?  More EMRs and more HIPAA.

That may be an over simplification of the issues, but those are probably the two most significant driving factors affecting those of us in the healthcare documentation field. Certainly one of my challenges is to be able to speak to this future as the incoming AHDI president.

Where do we turn? What can we say about the future of our profession? It is simply past the point of ignoring what is happening around us. What can AHDI do to help you?

EMRs with templates and healthcare-provider documentation solutions continue to shrink the number of MTs historically used for traditional transcription. In plain terms, your role as an MT has changed, or will change, depending on what part of the country you are in, what phase of EMR adoption your work environment is at, what size of healthcare facility or service you work for, all in response to both federal urgings and monetary incentives to move to an EMR and the very real necessity of gaining control over healthcare costs.

As incoming president, my priorities for this year include:

1. Continuing our education: Our workforce needs to understand the intricacies of new medicine and new technologies, and be prepared to work in those environments in addition to preparing and educating for new uses of our knowledge base. And proof of our excellence may very well be defined by our being a credentialed workforce.
2. Continuing our advocacy: We need to stay connected with dialogues that stress the need for our MT knowledge-based skills to be included in the documentation of healthcare. And our sector needs to be the one identifying quality and accuracy of documentation and “meaningful use” of available technologies.
3. Reformatting our association: There is no question at all that the original purpose of the association has changed, with time, with technology, and with MT needs all being subtly if not blatantly different. I would like to see us have an association structure that makes it more possible to meet those needs in a networking environment that engages members in pursuit of purpose and quality.

Many of the existing programs, products and initiatives available now speak to those priorities:

• The Speech Recognition technology training program is a 100% web-based course designed to assist the practicing MT to transition to the role of a speech recognition editor. There are also courses for acute care transcription, specialties transcription, technology updates, and credential-gaining programs.
• The “Manual for Ethical Best Practices for the Healthcare Documentation Sector” has been released, in part, with the entire manual slated for availability May 1. It includes guidelines and templates for HIPAA-compliant policies and procedures as well as recommendations for transparency in billing practices, in policies for reimbursement for MTs and for clear identification of work source, inarguably “best practices.”  A separate piece due to be released soon are guidelines for a HIPAA-compliant home-based MT office. (The base price does not include discounts for corporate AHDI or MTIA members. The MT at-home office component will be an entirely separate price.)

The revised federal HIPAA regulations mandate increased security and privacy compliance beginning February 1, 2010. Medical transcription businesses now fall under those revised rules and are open directly to potential penalties for breaches of confidentiality of protected health information, among other privacy and reporting requirements. (See For the Record Dec 21, 2009, issue: “HIPAA Targets.”  The Manual of Best Practices is designed to aid with that compliance.

• Plans are in place for AHDI’s 5^th Annual 2010 Advocacy Summit, March 23-25, in Washington, D.C. Registration for the 3 day event includes CECs and coordinated appointments with legislators. In this year of continued healthcare reform and increasing emphasis on EHR adoption and regulation, the message is one of the valuable contribution of healthcare documentation specialists in accurate medical records and continuity of care.

In support of Advocacy, AHDI’s Power of 10 campaign continues. This offers an opportunity for all MTs to contribute $10 during the year 2010 to support the advocacy that AHDI is doing on behalf of all documentation specialists and to understand it is also their voice, member of AHDI or not, that has a place in convincing healthcare systems that, while technologies will be utilized, the role of the knowledge-based MT is also needed for the sake of quality healthcare.

• Finally, we have launched the “Blueprint for Great Governance” initiative to create a roadmap for the association components that encompasses purpose, sharing of best practices, sustainability and positions them to meet the needs of members at the grassroots level.

Through a series of face-to-face meetings and virtual townhall opportunities, we are looking for both member and leader input to create that Blueprint and have it in place for launch in August, at the AHDI Annual Convention and Expo in Austin, Texas, not that far away.

Further details about these programs and initiatives can be found on the AHDI website.  And, as always, I invite your comments and questions. Here’s a promise that 2010 will be very interesting!

See full reports in next week’s CONNECTIONS.

DECEMBER 21, 2009

NATIONAL BOD TERMS OF OFFICE

Bylaws changes submitted by the BOD changing terms of office for the national Board of Directors from January 1 to December 31 of each year to terms starting and ending at each annual convention have been ratified by the HOD with 30 votes yes, 2 votes no. This affects ONLY the national Board of Directors, does not affect components or HOD at all.  There will be no need to fill 3 new positions on the BOD by the end of 2010, as the currently seated directors will serve until the following ACE in 2011.  Thereafter, an election shall be held annually for 3 positions on the BOD. For Directors elected prior to December 2009, their term of office shall begin on January 1, 2010.  For Directors elected after January 2010, their term of office shall begin at each Q3 BOD meeting.

HOD LEAD TEAM TERM

Revision to the HOD-016 policy was approved by the HOD with 29 votes yes, 3 votes no, allowing a delegate to volunteer for more than one year on the lead team, but no more than 4 consecutive years.  This change was made in an effort to keep some consistency from year to year. With Delegates having 2-year terms, the Lead Team felt that it would be best to change this to 4 years so that we could maintain some consistency within the Lead Team.  The change is 2 years to the suggested 4 years.

This concludes the business from the HOD online vote.

This new cycle will provide the opportunity for those attending ACE to witness the “changing of the guard” with installation of new officers and recognition of those who have served the association. Since we have a few newly-elected directors, it has been decided they will take office as of January 2010, to take the place of vacant positions. This does not affect the Speaker of the House. The House of Delegates will be voting on December 21 to accept or reject this bylaw change. AHDI-West has 3 delegates who represent you and will be voting based on your input. We have posted the complete document, outlining this bylaw change, for your review: Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file..

If you have any questions, concerns or opinions regarding this change, please contact us at no later than December 17, 2009.

A local chapter within a state/regional association’s geographical boundaries shall have one representative from the local chapter as a voting member of the state/regional association board of directors. This representative will be chosen by the chapter in a manner consistent with that chapter’s bylaws and/or policies and procedures.

(This bylaw, the way it is written, was voted on and approved; however, due to the verbiage implying that the bylaws and policies and procedures were given equal weight, which cannot be, this bylaw will be reworded to eliminate “bylaws” and “per the national bylaws committee.”)

We were also introduced to the Speaker of the House for 2010, Bonnie Monico, CMT, AHDI-F. We met the candidate for Speaker of the House-Elect, Chad Sines, MS, AHDI-F, running unopposed. Voting will be possible through August 31, 2009. Please go to AHDI Vote and vote for a maximum of 3 candidates for the national Board of Directors and 1 candidate for Speaker of the House-Elect.

Connie M. DeCoe-Munier, CMT
AHDI-West Delegate and Secretary

Upcoming Vote at House of Delegates Meeting

Resolution: Local Chapters shall have one representative from the local chapter as a voting member of the state/regional association under which the chapter resides. This representative will be chosen by the chapter board of directors.

Rationale: Having a chapter representative as a voting member of the State/Regional (S/R) association board will enhance the communication of information and the coordination of events, both from the chapter to the S/R association and from the S/R association to the chapter members. Often the addition of a chapter representative will facilitate idea-sharing and brainstorming opportunities for success tips from those who are usually more experienced serving on the S/R board. The inclusion of a chapter representative from each of the chapters within their S/R boundaries will promote greater teamwork among all of the component associations within that S/R association. This change will also provide a consistency within all of our S/R associations as many of our S/R associations currently have the chapter representative as a voting member of their board.

Your comments are welcome. Send an email to the AHDI-West Delegates or leave your comments below.

Jacque Taylor, AHDI-F

Deborah Nolan, CMT

Connie DeCoe-Munier, CMT