There will be no shortage of hot-button discussion topics when the 82nd annual convention and exhibition of the American Health Information Management Association convenes Sept. 25-30 in Orlando, Fla.
At the top of the agenda will most likely be the growing employment opportunities for coders in the wake of the federal healthcare reform legislation.
“Probably the biggest thing that’s facing the HIM industry right now is the explosive growth and focus on the workforce development relative to the ARRA ONC (workforce) grants,” said Lynette Czarkowski, senior vice president of HIM products and services at AHIMA.
Other issues to be discussed include the ICD10 and HIPAA 5010 transitions.
“As always, we have a focus in many of our educational tracks on the latest and greatest programming related to ICD10 coding,” said Czarkowski, “We’re very concerned with the detail related to ICD10, and we’re focusing very strongly on our responsibility for the planning and strategic value of ICD10 in our healthcare facilities with our payers and with our vendors.”
Czarkowski added that another much-talked-about topic at the convention would be HIPAA privacy changes related to HITECH legislation.
The ever-evolving role of electronic health records will also be discussed.
“We’ve got a number of presentations that deal with EHR implementation from all angles,” said Czarkowski. “For example, one of our general session speakers is Dr. Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General, and she’ll be discussing the importance of EHRs to America’s public health. We also have a general session topic exploring the issues related to implementing EHRs from a legal standpoint. And then there’s a number of other sessions on our education tracks that deal with EHR implementation in various settings: hospitals, physician practices, long-term care facilities.”
From keynote speakers such as Paul Tang, MD, vice president and CMIO at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, to educational sessions and networking opportunities, the byword for the AHIMA convention this year, said Czarkowski, is “onward and upward.”
“We’re really expecting a large and exciting convention this year and looking forward to everyone joining us in Orlando,” she said. “There’s so much happening in healthcare right now.”