As we are seeing as a result of the worldwide pandemic, accurate and timely health and patient data to ensure patient safety is more important than ever. Yet even though the ECRI Institute names patient misidentification one of the top ten threats to patient safety, a two decade-old appropriations rider has stifled innovation and industry progress in advancing a nationwide patient identification strategy.
 
COVID-19 is highlighting the urgent need to lift this archaic ban. Accurate identification of patients is one of the most difficult operational issues during a public health emergency. Ensuring the correct patient medical history is accurately matched to the patient is vital for COVID-19 diagnoses, future patient care, claims billing, patients’ long-term access to their complete health record, and tracking the long-term health effects of COVID-19. Furthermore, the nationwide response in coming months, including effective implementation of any large-scale immunization programs, hinges on accurate patient information.
 
Last year, there was broad support for removing the ban, and the US House of Representatives voted to remove the ban from its Labor-HHS appropriations bill, but unfortunately the ban is included once again in this year’s House bill. Our champions on the Hill, Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) are introducing an amendment on the floor of the House to remove this ban.
 
AHIMA needs your help to reach out to your Members of Congress and urge them to vote for the Foster-Kelly amendment and remove section 510 from the FY2021 Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Your Representatives won’t take action without hearing from their constituents, and we cannot ensure the progress achieved so far on this issue will continue without our members’ engagement. 
 
Thank you for your help in spreading the word to our members to take action today.

Act Now!

The election is underway (running July 13th – July 27th) and you can cast your vote here. During this election, you will vote for the offices of President/Chair-elect, Directors of the AHIMA Board of Directors, Commissioners on the Commission on Certification for Health Informatics and Information Management (CCHIIM), and members of the Council for Excellence in Education (CEE). You can find the information on each candidate on Engage under the AHIMA Membership and Business Engage Community (if you aren’t a member please join and set your notifications accordingly). To help you further decide on the candidate of your choice, this community has some Q&A from the chat held June 29th – July 10th.
 
We are very excited that our own Jeannine Cain, AAHIM Past President, is on the ballot this year for Speaker-Elect!  We previously sent out a video she created as a candidate to highlight this exciting time and share her message with all of our Alabama members.  A separate election will happen for Speaker-elect and only members of the House of Delegates will be able to vote.  In the video, you probably noticed how passionate Jeannine is about everyone voting, and we hope we can count on you as an #HIMProud participant in this election. 
 
We apologize for any confusion the previous email may have caused. If you have already voted, we thank you so much for engaging in the success of our profession and future. If you have not been able to vote, please take the time to review the candidates and cast your vote for the candidate of your choice now. Voting closes on Friday, July 27th, 2020 at 5:00 pm. 
 
Don’t miss this opportunity to pick your leaders. Help shape the future by choosing the candidates who will work to ensure that tomorrow’s healthcare will be even more connected, more accurate, and more innovative than ever before. If you are on social media, you can use #AHIMAvotes to let everyone know that you have participated so we can join together in moving our profession forward.

With the recent travel bans, business shutdowns, increased COVID-19 cases, etc. AAHIM has decided to move forward with hosting a virtual state meeting. We believe these steps will provide a level of safety for our members and industry partners that is not possible in a face to face setting. It is heartbreaking that we will not see each other, celebrate each other, or network with each other in person, but we can still be together in spirit!

Most of the original presentations will be recorded but there are some changes as well. For those who register, a link will be sent to view the presentations at your convenience. More information will come soon as details are confirmed. We hope to have this available to you by mid August.

If you have already registered, your registration will carry over to this new format.

More details to come soon!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

Thanks for always supporting AAHIM and the HIM Profession.

Due to the continued uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the safety of our members, AAHIM has decided to move the coding symposiums to a recorded virtual format….which means more CEUs! The plan is to bring you recorded presentations from both symposiums for you to listen to at your convenience. 

If you are already registered, your registration will carry over.  More details to come as the details are finalized.

For questions please contact Karen Price at karenprice@aahim.org

We wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the most recent topic addressed by AHIMA. While this may not be new to some, it is time that we join together as information managers, as patient advocates, as friends, and as colleagues to create awareness and raise our voice so change can happen. It is never ok for a person to be treated differently and it is up to us to correct the path forward. 

Please join me in sharing this article and creating awareness of the changes that need to be made. 

You can also contact your state representatives to #VOICE your concerns. It is our responsibility to make a difference by being the #VOICE someone may not have. #PatientRights #HumanRights #HIMProud 

In addition, AAHIM is adding a new Diversity and Inclusiveness committee. It is essential to our progress for this new committee to assist us in developing policies and procedures for our leadership and members while guiding us to bring about awareness and education. If you are interested in volunteering for this committee please contact Karen Price at KarenPrice@aahim.org. 

AAHIM would like to know how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting you and how we can better meet your needs during this time. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey by Thursday, May 21. 

Take the Survey

Dear AAHIM Members and Fellow Colleagues:

Over the last week, AAHIM leadership has discussed the coronavirus situation and how this could affect the makeup of our coding symposium and annual meeting. Because of the increased risk, along with following the guidelines from national and state officials, we have made the decision to postpone both meetings. However, we are still contractually obligated to both venues. The new dates for both meetings are:

State Meeting – August 12 – 14, 2020
Coding Symposium – September 25, 2020

If you have registered for either of these meetings, your registration will be carried over to the new date, unless otherwise noted. You will also still have an opportunity to register to attend these meetings.

We understand that education is very important to you. We are in the process of discussing ways to bring you virtual meetings that will offer CEs. More details of that will come soon.

The Board will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns at karenprice@aahim.org.

We appreciate your understanding and hope that you and your family stay safe during this time of uncertainty.

2019-2020 AAHIM Board

AHIMA is looking for strategic, innovative, dedicated members to be considered for one of our five elected roles in 2021.

View the opportunities for the AHIMA President/Chair-elect, Board of Directors, CEE members, CCHIIM Commissioners, and Speaker-elect of the House of Delegates on the AHIMA website.

Select the Elected Positions tab from the top toolbar to review each description. The application for each position is posted on Engage’s Volunteer Center.

Questions?  Feel free to contact profession.governance@ahima.org.

As the Senate leaves town for August district work period, I wanted to provide a quick update on where things are with the patient matching issue in Congress and to ask for your assistance. As you may recall in June the House adopted an amendment that would strike language in the FY20 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (Labor-HHS) Appropriations bill that prohibits the US Department of Health and Human Services from using federal funds to promulgate or adopt a unique patient identifier.

Striking this language will provide the US Department of Health and Human Services the ability to evaluate a full range of patient matching solutions and enable it to work with the private sector to identify a solution that is cost-effective, scalable, secure and one that protects patient privacy. Now that a budget deal has materialized, when the Senate returns in September, we expect them to quickly take up the Senate FY20 Labor-HHS appropriations bill. We are trying to build grassroots support for the Senate to reject inclusion of this outdated language as the House did in June.

Along these lines, we’ve created a new engagement at AHIMA’s Advocacy Action Center and we have two favors to ask— 

• Head to the Advocacy Action Center to contact your US Senator about this critical issue. 
• Encourage others to take action as well. 

Our goal between now and September is to garner as much grassroots support as possible to continue to move this issue forward. 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks for your support of HIM!! 

AAHIM Board

Shared by Jeannine Pugh

Vote Today!