The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it will further delay enforcement of the Red Flags Rule. Organizations now have until November 1, 2009, to become compliant. The rule was to go into effect Saturday, August 1.

FTC says the delay will allow organizations covered by the rule to further review its educational materials and prepare their compliance plans.

The anti-fraud regulation requires organizations that act as creditors to implement programs to identify, detect, and respond to “red flags” that could indicate identity theft. The final rule was published November 9, 2007, with an original compliance date of November 1, 2008. It has been delayed several times due to a lack of industry readiness and calls for more clarification and assistance in designing compliance plans.

A new AHIMA toolkit helps HIM professionals steer their organizations through the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program.

 The “Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Toolkit” includes background on the program and an overview of the process, including what entities are eligible to be audited, the basis for the audits, and the type of audits. It also includes appendixes providing: (more…)

The Department of Labor announced $125 million in funding for projects that train workers to pursue careers in healthcare. The department’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has requested proposals to spend it, due October 5.

The funding is part of $220 million appropriated by ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to train workers for employment in high-growth and emerging industry sectors. The request for grant applications appeared in the July 22, 2009, issue of the Federal Register.

ETA expects to fund 45 to 65 grants ranging from approximately $2 to $5 million. The period of grant performance will be up to 36 months. (more…)

CCHIT, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, has been the sole certification source for electronic health record products for some years now, but ARRA may change that. A working group of the Health IT Policy Committee has recommended that multiple organizations conduct certification testing and that the federal government take over the setting of certification criteria.

The ARRA provision that will pay Medicare and Medicaid bonuses to providers who are “meaningful users” of health IT has put heightened focus on certification. Meaningful use has yet to be fully defined, but it will certainly include certified products.

The workgroup presented its recommendations at the policy committee’s July 16 meeting, suggesting that the government widen certification to include more system types than CCHIT currently covers, assume responsibility for establishing certification criteria, and create a process for accrediting multiple organizations to perform certification testing. ARRA established the committee to advise the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, part of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for refining and managing the incentive program. (more…)

Healthcare is a step closer to a definition for the “meaningful use” of health IT. The Health IT Policy Committee approved revised recommendations for the “meaningful use” of health IT today, handing them off to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The committee’s revision of its earlier recommendations features modified criteria for use of computerized physician order entry and faster adoption of clinical decision support and personal health records among the score of major and minor tweaks.

The committee also offered new recommendations on the rollout of the program’s objectives and measures, which evolve from 2011 to 2015.

ARRA structured the incentives program to encourage providers to get started early. However, with the revisions the committee recommends that the evolving criteria be based on “adoption year” rather than a calendar year. That is, an organization that first seeks to become eligible for the program in 2012 would use the first-year criteria (2011). Otherwise, the committee felt, the “rising tide” of criteria could be a deterrent.

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AHIMA’s consumer Web site myPHR.com relaunched with a major redesign. The new site offers information on PHRs organized by seven major user groups: parents, students, seniors, caregivers, the chronically ill, travelers, and athletes. Check out the new blogs, news feed, and events calendar.

The site offers consumer information on choosing a PHR, starting a PHR, and protecting your privacy. Community groups can also schedule local PHR presentations through AHIMA’s community education program.

This time last year the Journal surveyed members on their top coding challenges. High on the list were staffing shortages, with respondents citing trouble finding qualified coders. This year the Journal again informally polled a group of members, this time focusing on the state of coder staffing.

The long-standing coding shortages weren’t magically solved in the past year. Only 60 percent of respondents to this year’s poll reported that their departments are completely staffed for all approved positions. About a quarter (23 percent) have coding positions that have been open for more than 3 months. The balance reported positions that have been open 3 months or less. (more…)

Reports of health record breach violations have been pouring into the California Department of Public Health since the state began requiring healthcare entities to report all incidents of unauthorized record access.

More than 800 reports have been filed since the law took effect January 1, according to Kathleen Billingsley, RN, deputy director of the California Department of Public Health, Center for Health Care Quality (CDPH). The agency has conducted dozens of investigations to date, she says. 

The new laws have raised eyebrows across the country, and have positioned California as a “leader in medical privacy,” Billingsley says. Meanwhile healthcare providers have been scrambling to institute policies that adhere to the new—some say overly strict— requirements. (more…)

The July feature article takes a look at how HIM professionals have integrated POA reporting into their workflow processes and reporting requirements over the past two years. Other features report on the use of ICD-10 for mortality coding, how to make the most of external coding audits, and the benefits of standards development organizations that collaborate together. (more…)

AHIMA representatives to the World Health Organization participate in the development and maintenance of classifications that create consistent data worldwide. In the July print edition, Sue Bowman and Rita Scichilone describe three work groups on which they serve. This online version of the story includes additional information on each group’s specific charges.

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The World Health Organization maintains the Family of International Classifications, a suite of classification products that may be used in an integrated fashion to compare health information internationally and nationally. The International Classification of Diseases is published and maintained by WHO-FIC. ICD-10 is the current edition, and ICD-11 is in development.

Internationally endorsed classifications such as those in WHO-FIC facilitate the storage, retrieval, analysis, and interpretation of data; they enable the comparison of data within populations over time and between populations at the same point in time. Their use results in the compilation of internationally consistent data. (more…)