Well, I made it through my separation anxiety after leaving my son at college. It was difficult for the first few days, but now we have gotten into our routine. I think about all that it took to get him to where he is today and I am thankful for the scholarship opportunities that were made available to him. It makes me think of all the HIM students and how we can help them with their education.

AHIMA’s Foundation of Research and Education (FORE) offers merit scholarships to outstanding undergraduate students pursuing degrees in health information administration and health information technology who have at least one full semester (6+ hours) of classes remaining in their course of study at the time the award is granted (August 31). Scholarships are also available to credentialed health information management (HIM) professionals pursuing graduate degrees in an area related to HIM practice.

As a FORE Board member and HIM educator, I have seen first hand how these scholarships have helped students. A very simple way and one that means so much is the shooting star award. If you make a donation in honor of a friend or colleague in HIM, a mentor, a co-worker, or a classmate-- then you can request a FORE Shooting Star pin when you make your gift! The gold lapel pin is for you to present to your honoree in recognition of all they contribute to the HIM profession. Each Shooting Star Pin is $25 and the pins can be mailed directly to you to present to your honoree or (at your request) FORE can mail it to the individual on your behalf. These contributions are a thoughtful way to remember or recognize members while supporting the FORE Merit Scholarship Program.

If you would like to support the advancement of HIM as a profession and the individuals who commit to the betterment of the profession, consider making a gift to FORE today!

Have a great week!

Julie Wolter, MA, RHIA

President, MHIMA

* KCHIMA Meeting - September 19th

* Mid-Missouri Meeting - October 5th

* AHIMA Annual Convention - October 8-10th

* MHIMA Reception at the AHIMA Annual Convention - October 8th

* Health Information and Technology Week - November 4th-10th

* MHIMA Board of Directors Board Meeting - March meeting is a conference call from 9-10:30 am (not a face to face)

* Hill Day - Washington DC - April 7th

* Winter Team Talks, Washington DC - April 8th

* MHIMA Annual Meeting - April 30 - May 2, 2008

* Long Term Care (LTC) 2008 Spring Meeting - May 1-2, 2008

Modern Healthcare released a list of the year's 100 most powerful individuals in the health care industry. Among the top names are Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; Deborah Peel, chair of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation; Microsoft chairman Bill Gates; and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill.

MHIMA would like to congratulate Linda Kloss, CEO American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) who was ranked #57!

The HIM profession is well represented.

AHIMA is about to begin its fourth year of hosting practice councils. HIM professionals that have an interest and some experience in the following topic areas are welcomed and encouraged to apply for the 2008 calendar year:

Clinical Terminology and Classification Electronic Health Record Health Information Exchange - new for 2008 Long Term Care Personal Health Record Physician Practice Privacy and Security Quality Indicators – new for 2008

Potential volunteers must submit a brief paragraph outlining the knowledge and skills they would bring to the effort, as well as a CV, resume, or summary of practice experience. Send your information via e-mail to AHIMA staff member Pam Garcia at Pamela.Garcia@ahima.org. Please note that all submissions must be received by the close of business on September 7.

Are you interested in keeping current with the personal health record (PHR) concept? Then consider joining the PHR email group that is being developed. Links to current information on what is happening in the industry will be sent to you monthly. You can follow along from the convenience of your own computer.

If you are interested in joining please send an email to Marsha Dolan at dolan@missouriwestern.edu or you can contact her at 816-271-5949.

OPINIONS NEEDED...please review the following information and contact one of your House of Delegate representatives with your thoughts/comments.

Upcoming votes for House of Delegates Resolutions:

There are currently two resolutions being considered by the AHIMA House of Delegates. These resolutions are the “Proposed Resolution on Diversity” and the “Proposed Resolution on HIM Adoption of the Personal Health Record.”

The diversity resolution is intended to advance AHIMA's commitment to a culture that respects diversity throughout its organization, the federation, and the HIM profession at large. To achieve this end, this resolution calls upon AHIMA and its affiliates to:

Adopt meaningful, actionable, and durable diversity practices to expand the real opportunities available to all HIM professionals, including opportunities to fully participate in AHIMA

Engage the AHIMA community in advancing the goals of enhanced professional opportunities for all and improved value of the membership experience

Respect the individual sensibilities, personal beliefs, differences, and privacy and other rights of all HIM professionals and AHIMA members

Monitor the impact of these practices to improve and strengthen them over time

The PHR resolution charges HIM professionals with the responsibility of creating and maintaining their own personal health record. HIM professionals are ideally suited through their education and professional capabilities to inform consumers and healthcare providers about the benefits of the PHR.

The Tennessee Health Information Management Association has proposed the above named resolution for discussion and vote by Delegates at the House of Delegates this October in Philadelphia. The resolution addresses the fact that there are standards being developed for the technology of electronic health information, there is no one developing practice standards for the management of the information contained in the technology.

Some of the examples where practice standards are needed cited in the proposed resolution are:

1. Making amendments/addendums/corrections to the record.

2. Correcting lab results.

3. Appropriate use of “cut and paste.”

4. Management of electronic forms and templates.

5. View only.

6. Auditing for privacy violations.

The proposed resolution calls for AHIMA to:

1. Convene workgroups of HIM professionals to determine areas where professional guidelines are needed.

2. Convene workgroups to develop professional practice standards where needed.

3. Devote necessary resources to promote establishment of these professional standards.

4. Publish a registry of e-HIM practice standards in the public domain.

Please give us your feedback regarding this, and the other resolutions that are before the House of Delegates. You can find our contact information by going to www.mohima.org You can e-mail any comments to me at awards@mohima.org

I hope everyone had a safe Labor Day weekend and managed to have some fun.

Jeff McGraw, RHIT

Delegate

The AHIMA Physician Practice Council has proposed the above named resolution for discussion and vote by Delegates at the House of Delegates this October in Philadelphia. The resolution addresses the healthcare industry as it transitions to the EHR, and the opportunities to improve documentation at the design phase. The design of an EHR system needs to ensure data quality and integrity is maintained to support patient care, health information exchange, quality management, compliance and other secondary uses of the data.

The proposed resolution calls for AHIMA to advocate:

1. Organizations developing or implementing EHR systems take steps to ensure that the functionality of their EHR system supports quality care, valid documentation, and data integrity;

2. HIM professionals, particularly those with expertise in data capture methods, compliance, and data quality management, actively participate in EHR system selection, design and development, implementation, and maintenance;

3. Organizations implementing EHR systems ensure that process analysis and improvement is performed in order to enhance documentation and avoid inaccurate, incomplete, inappropriate, or non-compliant documentation;

4. HIM professionals collaborate with clinician users of the EHR, including training, to ensure that the best quality of data and documentation is maintained for patient care, quality management, compliance, health information exchange; and secondary use purposes; and

5. HIM professionals actively participate and contribute to organizations that develop standards for the EHR to ensure that data and documentation in the EHR meets the needs of healthcare organizations.

Please give us your feedback regarding this, and the other resolutions that are before the House of Delegates. You can find our contact information by going to www.mohima.org

You can e-mail any comments to me at EHR@mohima.org

Teresa Knox, RHIT

Delegate

School has started and fall is upon us. As Director of Education for MHIMA my thoughts turn to continuing education. Are you aware that we have a speakers bureau? We created this tool for groups looking for someone to speak on any HIM topic. We are actively looking for MHIMA members that would be interested in joining our list of potential speakers. I know many of you have very timely and valuable information to share. You do not have to have a degree in public speaking just merely information you feel would be of help to others. Please consider adding your name to the list. Topics can vary from HIPAA, coding, auditing, eMPI, EHR, quality improvement, etc…. The list is endless. As you well know, in this field we have a wide range of responsibilities and should share our knowledge with one another. If you are interested or just want further information please feel free to contact me at education@mohima.org.

Ruth Koch, RHIT

Director of Education

Lisa Kronsberg, RHIA was selected to receive the Shooting STAR award for August by the MHIMA Board. Congratulations Lisa!

MHIMA Coding Roundtable Coordinator—Maggie Gambill RHIA, CCS-P

July 10, 2007: The first of hopefully many coding roundtable audioconferences was attended by over 30 lines/facilities. Coding scenarios suggested by audioconference participants and obtained from CodeWrite archives were reviewed during the hour-long event. Evaluations were favorable and after reporting to the MHIMA Board on the results, the Board is supportive of conducting more coding roundtable audioconferences in the future.

July 22, 2007: The AHIMA Coding Roundtable Summit was held in Chicago. Coding Roundtable Coordinators (CRC) from around the country gathered to exchange “success stories”, share ideas and develop a strategic plan for 2007-2008. I represented our CSA and reported on the coding roundtable activities of our regional associations during the past year.

July 24, 2007: The Pony Express Health Information Management Association held a coding roundtable at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. Three topics were prepared for discussion: conflicts between payer policies and official coding guidelines, present on admission reporting, and reason for visit reporting. The POA and Reason for Visits were based on Do-It-Yourself roundtable kits downloaded from the Coding Roundtable Community of Practice. Most of the participants were especially interested in discussing case scenarios for Present on Admission reporting. The group developed their own roundtable kit regarding conflicts between payer policies and coding guidelines and used the roundtable kits for POA and Reason for Visit which they downloaded from the Coding Roundtable CoP and modified for their use. A special thanks to Judy Bielby for submitting this summary.

August 18, 2007: Eastern Missouri Health Information Management Association held a Coding Roundtable at St John’s Mercy Medical Center in St Louis. It was a four hour morning session with more than 40 participants. MS-DRGs, POA and physician queries were among the topics, as well as specific questions posed by attendees. Tony Krawat, Lisa Kronsberg and Janice Noller facilitated the roundtable, providing excellent information for coding professionals. To add variety to the traditional roundtable format, Lisa added a coding puzzle competition. AHIMA resources, such as CodeWrite and the Coding CoP, were also presented.

NOTE: Please visit the MHIMA website www.mohima.org and select “Educational Opportunities” and the Coding Roundtable tab. You will find links to the Coding Roundtable Toolkit and the AHIMA Coding Roundtable Strategic Plan. For those of you who need more information, please contact the MHIMA Project Manager for Coding Roundtables, Maggie Gambill, RHIA, CCS-P, mgambill@chanllc.com

May 1-2, 2008

St. Charles Convention Center

St. Charles, MO

Questions: contact Julie Wolter wolter@slu.edu

The upcoming September meeting will be an exciting and detail oriented presentation. There will be a Coding Round Table with discussion of any issues relating to the October updates, any Final Rule Surprises, and Present on Admission requirements that are forthcoming.

The presenter is Judy Bielby, RHIA. Judy is a consultant with Durst and Associates. Her primary area of expertise is the accurate reporting of diagnosis & procedure codes for hospitals. Judy is an adjunct faculty member at the Missouri Western State University, has an MBA and a BS in Medical Record Administration from KU.

The meeting will be held at North Kansas City Hospital on Wednesday, September 19, from 5:30 – 6:30 pm.

Do you need affordable CEUs . . .

Make plans to attend the bi-annual meeting of the Mid-Missouri HIMA to be held on Friday, October 5th, at the Veteran's Administration Hospital, Columbia, MO. A portion of the meeting will include a presentation of electronic health records including electronic Release of Information and its tie-in with the record and a MyhealtheVet initiative that allows veteran patients to access portions of their records from their home computers.

Please consider supporting FORE. Listed below is their Mission/ Vision and the current project list.

FORE Mission

The Foundation of Research and Education of the American Health Information Management Association provides financial and intellectual resources to sustain and recognize continuous innovation and advances in health information management for the betterment of the profession, healthcare, and the public.

The Foundation achieves this mission by:

• raising funds to support Foundation initiatives • identifying trends that impact health information management • defining new directions for the profession • guiding and encouraging professional development through research • defining and identifying best practice • recognizing excellence in the HIM profession

Through research, education, and public awareness initiatives the Foundation ensures the vitality, visibility and viability of the health information management profession.

FORE Vision

The Foundation of Research and Education (FORE) of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a financially self-sustaining entity that provides resources for national leadership, research and innovation in health information management for the healthcare industry. FORE resources drive the improvement of the discipline of health information management and its impact on the quality and safety of healthcare.

FORE Value Statement:

The values of FORE reflect the history and ongoing development of the profession, and include: • Leadership • Research • Education • Integrity • Quality • Collaboration • Privacy • Professionalism • Diversity

Programs and Projects

Below is a listing of our current FORE programs or sponsored projects. For more information on a FORE program or sponsored project, please click on the title and you will be directed to that section of the FORE website.

• Merit Scholarships and Educational Loans • Practice Solutions and Best Practice Awards • Triumph Awards • Faculty Professional Development Stipends • FORE Library • Grant-in-Aid Research Awards • Dissertation Assistance Awards • Workforce Assessment Study