AHIMA calls for better EHR standards
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is calling for improved and unified Health Information Governance "to standardize EHR use to ensure the technology fulfills its promise of guiding better, more efficient patient care."
AHIMA said it is ready to work with healthcare industry providers, health plans, quality organizations and vendors as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish standards so that healthcare providers have clear principles to guide their patient documentation.
Aspects of Health Information Governance will be addressed throughout AHIMA’s 84th Annual Convention and Exhibit, which begins Oct. 1 in Chicago. In addition, AHIMA will bring together industry leaders to discuss data integrity at its Health Information Integrity Summit: The Quest for Safe, Usable, Quality Data in EHRs, Nov. 8-9, in Chicago. This spotlight on EHRs provides an opportunity for experts and those working in the field to discuss the latest insights and developments into an issue that affects every aspect of the healthcare system.
“Unified data governance principles will help promote accuracy and consistency and reduce ambiguity,” said AHIMA's CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA. “AHIMA stands ready to work with HHS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other groups to establish the guidelines that will accurately and fairly represent performance and outcomes of care. Data governance and data integrity have been and will be a critical part of AHIMA’s strategic plan, and we will continue to lead the discussions and the solutions developed in this field.”
Previously, AHIMA developed a Code of Ethics and Standards of Ethical Coding, which established ethical expectations for health information management (HIM) and coding professionals. AHIMA’s HIM Principles of Individual, Integrity and Protection—addressing health information also has served as the basis of the association’s work in clinical and administrative transaction and vocabulary standards.
Recent concerns that EHR implementation could lead to fraud further highlights the need to establish these standards, according to the association. These standards would seek to address data integrity, patient safety and quality measurement as well as traditional concerns regarding billing fraud.
In 2005, the AHIMA Foundation led the initiative to develop a report for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that provided recommendations on what the industry must do to prevent potential abuses in EHR documentation.
“We urge the government to truly investigate the depth of the recently reported problems so we can determine the scope of the issue and take steps to fix it,” said Thomas Gordon. “We will continue to ask our members to share the experiences they have with us so we can develop possible solutions.”
AHIMA will analyze the latest feedback from its members as well as the findings from the AHIMA summit and expects to provide additional recommendations in early 2013.
AHIMA said it is ready to work with healthcare industry providers, health plans, quality organizations and vendors as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish standards so that healthcare providers have clear principles to guide their patient documentation.
Aspects of Health Information Governance will be addressed throughout AHIMA’s 84th Annual Convention and Exhibit, which begins Oct. 1 in Chicago. In addition, AHIMA will bring together industry leaders to discuss data integrity at its Health Information Integrity Summit: The Quest for Safe, Usable, Quality Data in EHRs, Nov. 8-9, in Chicago. This spotlight on EHRs provides an opportunity for experts and those working in the field to discuss the latest insights and developments into an issue that affects every aspect of the healthcare system.
“Unified data governance principles will help promote accuracy and consistency and reduce ambiguity,” said AHIMA's CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA. “AHIMA stands ready to work with HHS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other groups to establish the guidelines that will accurately and fairly represent performance and outcomes of care. Data governance and data integrity have been and will be a critical part of AHIMA’s strategic plan, and we will continue to lead the discussions and the solutions developed in this field.”
Previously, AHIMA developed a Code of Ethics and Standards of Ethical Coding, which established ethical expectations for health information management (HIM) and coding professionals. AHIMA’s HIM Principles of Individual, Integrity and Protection—addressing health information also has served as the basis of the association’s work in clinical and administrative transaction and vocabulary standards.
Recent concerns that EHR implementation could lead to fraud further highlights the need to establish these standards, according to the association. These standards would seek to address data integrity, patient safety and quality measurement as well as traditional concerns regarding billing fraud.
In 2005, the AHIMA Foundation led the initiative to develop a report for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that provided recommendations on what the industry must do to prevent potential abuses in EHR documentation.
“We urge the government to truly investigate the depth of the recently reported problems so we can determine the scope of the issue and take steps to fix it,” said Thomas Gordon. “We will continue to ask our members to share the experiences they have with us so we can develop possible solutions.”
AHIMA will analyze the latest feedback from its members as well as the findings from the AHIMA summit and expects to provide additional recommendations in early 2013.