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News

2011 AHIMA CSA Core Service Achievements
Pennsylvania 2012 Medical Records Costs
ONC Releases "Meaningful Use" Criteria for Public Comment
PHIMA Legal Reference Manual of Health Information Management
Health Information Bill of Rights
PHIMA RHIA/RHIT Exam Reimbursement Recipients
Legislator Letter About HIM Education
ICD-10 Update
Geographic Pennsylvania Community of Practice 


2011 AHIMA Component State Association (CSA) Core Service Achievements




ONC Releases "Meaningful Use" Criteria for Public Comment

On December 30, 2009, CMS and ONC issued proposed regulations on the definition of Meaningful Use and the initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology. "We believe the EHR incentive program...will accelerate and facilitate health IT adoption by more individual providers and organizations throughout the health care system,” said Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health IT.

For more information, please visit ONC's Interim Final Rule.

PAeHI will be reviewing this information during the 60-day public comment period, and welcomes your input. More information to follow.

Mark Stevens
Executive Director PAeHI
717.561.5338
mstevens@paehi.org


Pennsylvania 2012 Medical Records Costs

NOTICES
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Amendments to Charges for Medical Records

[41 Pa.B. 6453]
[Saturday, December 3, 2011]

  Under 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 6152 and 6155 (relating to subpoena of records; and rights of patients), the Secretary of Health (Secretary) is directed to adjust annually the amounts which may be charged by a health care facility or health care provider upon receipt of a request or subpoena for production of medical charts or records. These charges apply to any request for a copy of a medical chart or record except as follows:

  (1) Flat fees (as listed in this notice) apply to amounts that may be charged by a health care facility or health care provider when copying medical charges or records either: (a) for the purpose of supporting any claim or appeal under the Social Security Act or any Federal or State financial needs based program; or (b) for a district attorney.

  (2) An insurer shall not be required to pay for copies of medical records required to validate medical services for which reimbursement is sought under an insurance contract, except as provided in: (a) the Worker's Compensation Act (77 P.S. §§ 1-1041.1 and 2501-2506) and the regulations promulgated thereunder; (b) 75 Pa.C.S. Chapter 17 (relating to financial responsibility) and the regulations promulgated thereunder; or (c) a contract between an insurer and any other party.

  The charges listed in this notice do not apply to an X-ray film or any other portion of a medical record which is not susceptible to photostatic reproduction.

  Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 6152.1 (relating to limit on charges), the Secretary is directed to make a similar adjustment to the flat fee which may be charged by a health care facility or health care provider for the expense of reproducing medical charts or records when the request is: (1) for the purpose of supporting a claim or appeal under the Social Security Act or any Federal or State financial needs based benefit program; or (2) made by a district attorney.

  The Secretary is directed to base these adjustments on the most recent changes in the Consumer Price Index reported annually by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor. For the annual period of October 31, 2010, through October 31, 2011, the Consumer Price Index was 3.5%.

  Accordingly, the Secretary provides notice that, effective January 1, 2012, the following fees may be charged by a health care facility or health care provider for production of records in response to subpoena or request:

 

Not to Exceed

  Amount charged per page for pages 1-20

$ 1.39

  Amount charged per page for pages 21-60

$ 1.03

  Amount charged per page for pages 61-end

$ 0.34

  Amount charged per page for microfilm copies

$ 2.04

  Flat fee for production of records to support any claim under Social Security or any Federal or State financial needs based program

$26.12

  Flat fee for supplying records requested by a district attorney

$20.62

  *Search and retrieval of records

$20.62

  In addition to the amounts listed previously, charges may also be assessed for the actual cost of postage, shipping and delivery of the requested records.

  The Department is not authorized to enforce these charges.

  Questions or inquiries concerning this notice should be sent to James T. Steele, Jr., Deputy Chief Counsel, Department of Health, Office of Legal Counsel, Room 825, Health and Welfare Building, 625 Forster Street, Harrisburg, PA 17120, (717) 783-2500.

  Persons with a disability who require an alternative format of this notice (for example, large print, audiotape, Braille) should contact James T. Steele, Jr. at the address or phone number listed previously, or for speech and/or hearing impaired persons V/TT (717) 783-6514, or the Pennsylvania AT&T Relay Services at (800) 654-5984.

  *Note: Federal regulations enacted under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act at 45 CFR Parts 160-164 state that covered entities may charge a reasonable cost based fee that includes only the cost of copying, postage and summarizing the information (if the individual has agreed to receive a summary) when providing individuals access to their medical records. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has stated that the fees may not include costs associated with searching for and retrieving the requested information. For further clarification on this issue, inquiries should be directed to the Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 509F, HHH Building, Washington, D.C. 20201, (866) 627-7748, http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa.

ELI N. AVILA, MD, JD, MPH, FCLM,
Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 11-2062. Filed for public inspection December 2, 2011, 9:00 a.m.]

No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.

This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.


Health Information Bill of Rights

AHIMA announced the Health Information Bill of Rights, a model for protecting the personal health information of the nation’s more than 300 million healthcare consumers. The bill of rights was created by a blue-ribbon panel of HIM professionals. The full text of the bill is available online here.


PHIMA RHIA/RHIT Exam Reimbursement Recipients

Congratulations and Welcome the following HIM professionals have recently graduated, successfully passed their RHIA or RHIT certification exam, and were reimbursed their exam expense.

Albugami

Saud

RHIA

Ali

Alexander

RHIA

Bankhead

Travis

RHIA

Bryant

Ginger

RHIA

Cosby

Toshia

 

Creveling

Michelle

RHIT

Desai

Krupa

RHIA

Dockery

Diya

RHIA

Frazier

Maurice

RHIT

Gerber

Daniel

RHIA

Gibbs

Ametria

RHIA

Guth

Kyle

RHIA

Hawks

Cherise

RHIA

Houseal

Lauren

RHIA

Jefferies

Nadirah

RHIT

Karan

Martina

RHIA

Korn

Stephanie

RHIA

Kudla

Thomas

RHIA

Lam

Celia

RHIA

Lougher

Donna

RHIT

Mangornong

Carolyn

RHIT

Martin

Christine

RHIA

Mayberry-DiMaria

Amber

RHIA

McAleer

Christina

RHIA

Miklich

Dawn

RHIT

Mills

Heather

RHIT

Mirand

Stephanie

RHIA

Moyer

Michelle

RHIT

Nguyen

Hong

RHIA

Oster

Joyce

RHIT

Pasquinelli

Kelly

RHIT

Pollack

Rachel

RHIA

Schafer

Kelly

RHIA

Schryver

Martin

RHIA

Share

Joshue

RHIA

Shriver

Kenneth

RHIA

Spataro

Gloria

RHIA

Stains (Sokol)

Marissa

RHIT

Summers

Kathy

RHIT

Tomasic

Tia

RHIA

Tomich

Jillian

RHIA

Wang

Erh Hsuan

RHIA

West

Brenda

RHIT

Wise

Carol

RHIT

If you, or know of someone, that qualifies for exam reimbursement, please visit the PHIMA webpage for more details www.phima.org/careercenter_examreimbursement.html


Legislator Letter About HIM Education

State legislators around the country are being urged to initiate HIM programs at the baccalaureate level.  An open letter to state legislators is being distributed tomorrow at the National Congress of State Legislators.  It will also be distributed to the media.  You may be queried by reporters, members, and/or the healthcare industry.  Please find the letter posted to the State Leader and HOD CoP.


ICD-10 Update

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a final rule for replacing the 30-year-old ICD-9-CM code set with ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS.  The final rule outlines the effective date as 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, and the compliance date for the two classification sets is established as October 1, 2013.

Learn more on the AHIMA website


 Pennsylvania Community of Practice 

Another great way to share information with others, ask a question, network with over 400 Pennsylvania-based colleagues and provide feedback on state-wide or national issues is to join the  Pennsylvania Community of Practice (CoP) sponsored by AHIMA.  The Geographic Pennsylvania CoP is an online member interaction tool designed with Pennsylvania’s AHIMA members needs in mind.

The CoP contains up-to-date news, links to helpful resources, and, most importantly, solutions and ideas from peers. It's much more than discussion boards, because there are many tools integrated into this site to help members connect with members. And because it is supported by PHIMA, you can trust the information to be timely, accurate and relevant to health information professionals practicing within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

You must be a member of AHIMA to access the CoP. 

Pennsylvania CoP

PHIMA Legal Reference Manual of Health Information Management