By: Barb Marques, CMT, AHDI-F
AHDI President Elect

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!