AHIMA mailed the first issue of ICD-TEN today, a free e-newsletter on preparing for the transition to ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. You can subscribe with just an e-mail address.

Each issue contains news, practical coding information, the steps for implementation, educational resources, and more. The newsletter comes out monthly.

AHIMA also offers a wide range of ICD-10 information on its Web site.

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the parties involved in the protest over the award of Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) contracts had come to a settlement. This means that the stop work order has been lifted, and CMS will continue with the implementation of the RAC program.

PRG-Shultz will serve as a subcontractor to HealthDataInsights, Diversified Collection Services, and CGI Technologies and Solutions. Viant Payment Systems will serve as a subcontractor to Connolly Consulting. According to CMS, “the four RACs will contract with subcontractors to supplement their efforts.”

The program had been suspended last November when PRG-Shulz and Viant protested the contracts that had been awarded to four others. CMS plans to have four RACs in place by 2010. Each RAC will be responsible for identifying overpayment and underpayments in approximately a quarter of the country.

Last week the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would pay $20 million to settle a class action lawsuit resulting from a stolen laptop. The case resonated with a data breach story Journal writer Chris Dimick had just written for the current print issue, and he circled back with two law experts featured in the story to get their comments.

First a little background. In 2006 a VA employee took home a laptop that included unencrypted personal information for approximately 26.5 million vets. Several teenagers broke into the employee’s house and made off with the laptop.

The employee notified his superiors immediately, but the VA took nearly three weeks to warn vets that their information was at risk. (more…)

AHIMA has posted a 13-page analysis of the final rule on the implementation of ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. The summary is a good overview of the lengthier final rules published in the Federal Register.

The final rule was published January 16. It designates ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS as medical data code sets under HIPAA, replacing the 30-year-old ICD-9-CM set. There is a single compliance date of October 1, 2013.

In the final rule, the Department of Health and Human Services states that the greater detail and granularity of ICD-10-CM/PCS will enhance the ability to measure quality outcomes and provide more precision for value-based purchased initiatives such as the hospital-acquired condition payment policy. (more…)

“Redisclosure of Patient Health Information (Updated),” the practice brief in this month’s print issue, offers guidance on one of HIM’s trickier issues. Redisclosure is the sharing or release of patient health information that the organization received from another source (such as a facility or provider) and subsequently made part of the patient’s health record or the organization’s designated record set. A glance at the sample situations in the brief shows just how complicated this issue can become.

AHIMA’s library contains additional related guidance on redisclosure. Look for these practice briefs:

• “Defining and Disclosing the Designated Record Set and the Legal Health Record”
• “Notice of Privacy Practices”
• “Patient Access and Amendment to Health Records (Updated)”
• “Understanding the Minimum Necessary Standard (Updated)”

The 2009 Consulting/Outsourcing Guide was published in the February 2009 Journal of AHIMA. This special advertising section is published annually by AHIMA to promote health information management consulting and outsourcing services. 

The Journal of AHIMA publishes five Buyers Guides a year: Consulting/Outsourcing (February), Transcription (April), Coding (July), Physician Practice Solutions (August), and Software and Health IT (September).

Click on the image to view the guide.

The February issue examines when organizations should notify patients of a data breach. Other features delve into how to prepare for the Recovery Audit Contractor Program and resolving the complex issue of privacy protections to advance health IT adoption. (more…)