AHIMA Helps Define the Legal Health Record
Recognizing there is no “one-size fits
all definition,” the
American Health
Information Management Association (AHIMA) offers common principles
for defining the legal medical record. The Chicago-based association
recommends that HCOs examine their existing definition of a legal
record to determine if changes are necessary as they migrate from
a paper to electronic environment. Considerations for the content
of the legal health record should include ease of access to different
components of patient care information, guidance from the medical
staff and the organization’s legal counsel, community standards
of care, federal regulations, state law and regulations, standards
of accrediting agencies and the requirements of third-party payers.
In total, nearly 50 data elements and documents should be considered
part of the legal record. Text of the report, “Guidelines for
Defining the Legal Health Record for Disclosure Purposes,” is
available in the September issue of the Journal of AHIMA and by
clicking
here.
CMS: Non-HIPAA compliant electronic forms paid slower
Starting July 1, the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services will still accept electronic Medicare
claims that do not meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act standards, but they will be treated as paper claims and paid
more slowly than HIPAA-compliant electronic claims, taking an additional
13 days. The modification to the CMS compliance plan only affects
covered entities submitting Medicare claims to a Medicare contractor.
The modification has an effective date of July 1, but CMS said it
will begin delaying payments for non-compliant claims submitted
July 6 and after. CMS encourages filers in need of additional help
to contact their Fiscal Intermediaries or carriers, the private
contractors that process and pay Medicare claims. A listing of Medicare
FI's and carriers can be found at
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/contacts/incardir.asp. For more,
http://www.aha.org/aha/key_issues/hipaa/jsp/whatsnew.jsp.
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