Iowa Medical Society
www.iowamedical.org

Risky Business: The Risks and Regulations of Medical Record Management

November 13, 2008
Archived

Risky BusinessWe have all heard the promises of medical record simplification and administrative ease, but the reality of HIPAA and other medical record laws and regulations can be complex and demanding. In today's health care environment each request for information must be scrutinized and double-checked for validity. To assist physician clinics in alleviating some of the anxiety associated with medical records, IMS is sponsoring, "Risky Business: The Risks and Regulations of Medical Record Management."

This program features well-known speakers beginning with Erika Linden, CHC, of the Iowa Health Physicians, who will provide an overview of the HIPAA Privacy standard, specifically those areas that tend to be forgotten or misinterpreted. Lori Atkinson with MMIC in Des Moines, will follow Erika and explain the current trends and concerns regarding the risk management side of medical records management. Speaking on relevancy to the statutes regarding the release of medical records involved in a worker's compensation claim will be JoEllen Whitney, JD, from Davis Brown Law Firm in Des Moines. IMS legal staff will review legal sources in Iowa law, including the new copying charge law, as well as Medicare Advantage medical record requests.

In addition to these timely topics, Barb Pierce will conduct a pre-conference session, "Top 10 Coding and Compliance Issues" for those involved in the coding aspects within the clinic.

For more information on this or any IMS educational offering contact at (515)223-1401, ext. 206.

Registration Web site
(Upon registering you will be provided with a link to view the sessions online.)

Agenda

Pre-Conference
10:00 am
 Top 10 Coding and Compliance Issues
Barb Pierce, CCS-P, ACS-EM,
President, Barb Pierce Coding and Consulting, LLC, Des Moines
  • Identify risky coding practices.
  • Recognize policies to consider in addressing coding problems.
  • Discuss the issues related to E/M coding.
11:30 am
Registration
Conference
12:30 pm
 Five Years of HIPAA Privacy: Did We Get it Right?
Erika Linden, CHC, Director of Coding and Compliance, Iowa Health Physicians, Des Moines
  • Identify several practice pitfalls related to disclosure of medical records.
  • Discuss interpretations of HIPAA rule related to disclosure of treatment, to family members, and records from other providers.
  • Identify concerns related to disclosures made pursuant to a subpoena.
1:00 pm
Medical Record Documentation: The Patient Safety and Risk Management Perspective
Lori Atkinson, RN, BSN, CPHRM, Manager Risk Management, MMIC, West Des Moines
  • Identify the risks of patient injury due to poor medical record documentation.
  • List best practices and standards for quality medical record documentation.
  • Discuss patient safety benefits of an electronic medical record.
  • Describe strategies to improve documentation whether working with a paper or electronic medical record.
1:45 pm
 Medicare Advantage Risk-Adjusted Plans – Medical Record Challenges
Jeanine Freeman, JD, Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs, IMS, West Des Moines
  • Review the background on Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, particularly MA Private Fee-for-Service (PFFS) plans.
  • Identify medical record requests by MA PFFS plans.
  • List legal and regulatory expectations of medical practices with respect to requests.
  • Outline options for medical practices in responding to the requests.
2:15 pm
Break
2:30 pm
 Workers' Compensation Requests
JoEllen Whitney, JD Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts, P.C., Des Moines
  • Discuss situations where documentation must be provided.
  • Identify circumstances where documents must be redacted or limited.
  • Understand the workers' comp process.
3:00 pm
 Deciphering the Changes in Iowa's Medical Record Law
Heidi Goodman, BSN, JD, Policy Counsel, and Eric Nemmers, JD, MHA, Legislative Counsel, IMS, West Des Moines
  • Explain changes in medical record fee schedules.
  • Describe the Iowa Medical Society's efforts to compile the IMS Guide to Medical Records for physicians.
3:30 pm
 Adjourn


Faculty
Lori Atkinson, RN, BSN, CPHRM, is manager of risk management for Midwest Medical Insurance Company (MMIC), a multi-state medical malpractice insurer. She has 29 years of experience in the health care field and 18 years in risk management. Lori is a frequent lecturer to physician groups, medical office and hospital administrators, nursing groups, and office and hospital personnel.

Erika Linden, CHC, serves as privacy officer and director of coding and compliance for Iowa Health Physicians (IHP), a physician practice with 250 physicians and non-physician practitioners providing care in 65 clinics in Iowa and western Illinois. In that role, she coordinated implementation of the HIPAA privacy and security rules for IHP. She is a frequent speaker on HIPAA, release of information issues, and electronic health records implementation.

Barb Pierce, CCS-P, ACS-EM, is the president of Barb Pierce Coding and Consulting, LLC. She has extensive knowledge in the areas of coding and billing. Her strengths include an extensive knowledge of CPT and ICD-9 coding as it is applied in a medical practice. She is often asked to perform compliance audits and evaluations for practices and clinics of various specialties. Barb has worked with a variety of clients performing medical record reviews and education.

JoEllen Whitney, JD, is a senior shareholder of the Davis Brown Law Firm in Des Moines. She works extensively in the field of health care law, privacy and confidentiality issues for clinics and small practices. She has worked with medical staffing, credentialing and privileging matters, as well as consent and risk analysis in health care areas. The author of multiple editions of the Iowa Guide to Medical Records, JoEllen speaks consistently on HIPAA, medical records privacy, physician issues and consent matters relating to the provision of medical care.