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Industry Activities & Emerging Issues
Continuum of Care
HIM professionals work in healthcare industries across the continuum of care. In each sector there are unique industry activities which AHIMA monitors or participates.
Post-Acute and Long Term Care
HIM professionals play an increasingly important role in post-acute and long term care as provider organizations adopt electronic health records/technologies and focus on data quality and reporting. Numerous industry activities and collaborations are occurring in this sector to advance key priorities. AHIMA and its members actively participate and monitor key industry activities to communicate the HIM perspective. As EHRs increase in adoption, the skill set of HIM professionals in LTC facilities and Home Health Agencies will be even more critical in managing electronic records and supporting compliance, coding, reporting, and quality initiatives.
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Standards & Industry Activities
LTC Health Information Practice & Documentation Guidelines:
A group of experts developed practice guidelines for the LTC industry on health information practices and documentation in 2001. The guidelines are being updated to include management of electronic records and information and will be released in early 2008.
Long Term Care HIT Summit and Roadmap:
In 2005 a collaborative of associations brought together stakeholders from post-acute and LTC organizations to focus on critical HIT initiatives for aging services. The associations recognized common interests and visions in long term care and set a course of collaboration to improve the planning for and use of health information technology. Since 2005 a summit has been hosted annually and “final reports” were produced which identifies priorities and action items for a consensus agenda. The collaborative of associations has increasingly worked together to influence industry initiatives outside of the annual summit to advance the priorities identified in the roadmap.
Long Term Care - Nursing Home EHR-System Functional Profile Workgroup:
This workgroup will develop a LTC EHR-S functional profile (based on the HL7 EHR-S standard) that will provide the foundation for CCHIT to develop product certification criteria for nursing home EHRs. It is a joint effort of participants from: two health information standards development organizations -- Health Level Seven (HL7) and the National Council of Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP); American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA); and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).
Workgroup membership is open to all who are interested in and able to participate in the development of the LTC-NH EHR system functional profile standard. The standards development process is open and consensus-driven.
Once complete the Nursing Home EHR-System Functional Profile will be registered with HL7 EHR Technical committee and balloted through the HL7 process in 2008. The registered profile can be accessed at www.hl7.org/ehr later in 2008.
Click here to access the Long-Term Care EHR-S Functional Profile Workgroup Webpage
CCHIT - Certification Commission for Health Information Technology:
In February 2007, CCHIT placed Long Term Care on their roadmap for development of EHR system certification criteria. It is anticipated that certification of LTC products could begin in late 2009 or 2010. CCHIT is a certification body for electronic health record systems and their networks. It is an independent, voluntary, private sector initiative. The mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating an efficient, credible and sustainable certification program. CCHIT is composed of commissioners from a variety of healthcare stakeholders and consists of work groups for the development and refinement of certification criteria.
LTCC - Long Term Care Consortium:
A group of long term care provider organizations and select associations collaborated to jointly develop resources. Originally formed to focus on HIPAA, the consortium has evolved to provide leadership and guidance to the long term care profession utilizing the member organizations’ collective knowledge, expertise and information resources to reduce the overall burden of compliance through collaboration on those initiatives that are common to the profession. Resources include privacy tools, ICD-9-CM, records retention, risk assessment and security tools, and others.
Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes:
Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes is a new coalition based, two-year campaign that launched in September 2006. The campaign is reinvigorating efforts to improve the quality of care and quality of life for those living or recuperating in America's nursing homes.
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Other Resources & Links:
Organizations and Associations:
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Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes
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AAHSA - American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
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AANAC - American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators
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ACHCA - American College of Health Care Administrators
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AHCA - American Health Care Association
- AHQA - American Health Quality Association
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AHA - American Hospital Association
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AMDA - American Medical Directors Association
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CHCF - California Healthcare Foundation
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CAST - Center for Aging Services Technologies
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Commonwealth Fund
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Continua Health Alliance
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HMS - Health Management Strategies
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ICOR - Institute of Clinical Outcomes Research
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InterRAI
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LTCPA - Long Term Care Pharmacy Alliance
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NADSA - National Adult Day Services Association
- NASL - National Association for the Support of Long-Term Care
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NCAL - National Center for Assisted Living
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NPA - National PACE Association
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AHIMA Resources
Books:
ICD-9-CM Diagnostic Coding for Long-Term Care and Home Care
By Charlotte Lefert, RHIA, and Ida Blevins, RHIA
Documentation and Reimbursement for Long-Term Care
By Ella James, RHIT, CPHQ
Documentation and Reimbursement for Home Care and Hospice Programs
By Prinny Rose Abraham, RHIT, CPHQ
Distance Learning – Post-Acute and Long Term Care Courses
Journal of AHIMA:
Long-term Care’s IT Agenda: Industry Summit Produces 11 Action Items for Health IT Adoption
By Michelle Dougherty, RHIA, CHP
AHIMA Communities of Practice (Member’s Only)
Long Term Care Community of Practice: With almost 3000 members the LTC community networks and shares resources on HIM and coding issues for long term care, subacute, and nursing home settings.
Home Care & Hospice Community of Practice: Over 1000 members network, share ideas, successes, strategies for HIM and coding issues in home care and hospice.
FORE Library: Body of Knowledge (Member’s Only)
AHIMA members have access to thousands of resources and publications through the Body of Knowledge (BOK). This web based library provides access to Journal of AHIMA articles, Perspective articles, external publications, AHIMA National Convention proceeding papers and more. The BOK includes resources on post-acute and long term care topics.
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Physician Practice and Ambulatory Care
As the health care setting where most health services are delivered, physician practices and clinics are constantly undergoing change in response to greater demands to manage quality and cost. HIM professionals play a critical role in helping practices and clinics to manage health information which supports patient care, quality management, coding and reimbursement and adoption of health information technology.
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Standards and Industry Activities
Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT)
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology continues to certify electronic health record products for use in physician offices and clinics. For the most up to date list of certified products and information about the certification process, please go to www.cchit.org
Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI)
On December 29, 2007, the President signed the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (Extension Act), which authorized the continuation of the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) for 2008.
The 2008 PQRI reporting period is January 1-December 31, 2008. Eligible professionals who want to report for 2008 PQRI and are not already reporting quality-data codes on claims with 2008 dates of service should begin reporting as soon as possible.
For additional information on reporting, click here.
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Other Resources & Links
DOQ-IT University
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have launched an online educational tool to help physician offices adopt health information technology. The DOQ-IT U Web site provides a self-paced curriculum and associated tools to help solo and small-to-medium sized practices implement electronic health records and care management practices, said CMS Acting Administrator Leslie Norwalk. The current learning modules focus on physician office workflow design, culture change, communication and the patient self-management component of clinical care. The Quality Improvement Organization program will develop and manage the free Web site under contract to CMS, with content provided by a technical advisory panel.
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Current AHIMA Resources
May 9th, 2008
AHIMA National Office
Chicago, IL
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