The 81st convention and exhibition of the American Health Information Management Association is under way, and the $34 billion in federal incentives to support adoption of electronic health records is garnering a big piece of the attention.
The convention – at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, just outside Dallas – officially opens today with an address from Vera Rulon, president of AHIMA's board of directors.
The healthcare piece of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its effect on the healthcare system and the handling of data is likely to generate the most interest, insiders say.
Among the speakers for what the organization has dubbed "AHIMA Prime Time" are national healthcare IT chief David Blumenthal, MD, who will provide a federal update on ARRA, and Mark Leavitt, MD, who heads the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, who will talk about the certification of electronic health records and the federal incentives available for adoption of EHRs.
Leavitt speaks Monday at 10:45 a.m. Blumenthal is slated to speak Tuesday at 11:15 a.m.
The schedule is packed from dawn to dusk for the more than 3,500 expected attendees. There are more than 10 general sessions, 60 track sessions and 18 practice topics as well as a daylong workshop on ARRA. There are also 25-35 networking breakfasts on a wide range of topics and a show floor with 500 exhibitors and the popular "Not-So-Silent Auction."
Among the hot topics – each with a clear IT component, said Lynnette Czarkowski, AHIMA's vice president of HIM products – are:
* Converting from ICD-9 medical coding to ICD-10, which AHIMA supports. Harry Reynolds Jr., vice president and information compliance officer of BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, will talk Monday about what his organization has done to prepare;
* ARRA, including the HITECH Act, and its effect on the adoption of healthcare IT;
* The legal EHR;
* Medicare audits, known as RAC audits, for the Recovery Audit Contractor program;
* The use of coded data; and
* Medical identity theft
Also, AHIMA is announcing a formal list of health information protections that every American patient should expect from the nation's healthcare system. The list will be released at noon on Monday.