1. © 2016 AHIMA Hill Day 2016: Exercising Your Voice Presenter: Lauren Riplinger, JD, Senior Director, Federal Relations

2. © 2016 Webinar Reminders Please make sure to use the mute feature on your personal device or via the WebEx mute feature next to your name. At the end of this webinar we will be taking attendance by state. Ask questions! 2

3. © 2016 3 Agenda Hill Day Schedule Why do we Advocate? Legislative Landscape Patient Matching Telehealth Effective Communication Questions? Sharing your AHIMA volunteer experiences

4. © 2016 2016 Hill Day Schedule Monday, April 4: Advocacy Leadership Symposium 8:00 am Holiday Inn Capitol Hotel, 550 C Street, SW, Washington, DC Tuesday, April 5: Hill Day 6:30 am Packet Pick Up, Congressional Ballroom 7:00 am Meet-up to walk to Capitol Hill, Congressional Ballroom 8:00 am Breakfast, 345 Cannon House Office Building Participants will be asked to sit with their state delegation 9:00 am-5 pm: Meetings with Members of Congress and/or staff “Down time” between meetings can be spent in the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria 4

5. © 2016 5 Why Do We Advocate? Represent our professional interests and ensure that HIM professionals are part of the legislative decision making process Build name recognition for AHIMA and HIM professionals Make valuable legislative contacts

6. © 2016 6 Legislative Landscape Days Left in the 114 th Congress 84 Days of the House in session 110 Days of the Senate in Session

7. © 2016 7 Legislative Landscape Patient Matching Budget/Appropriations Telehealth Chronic Care Working Group

8. © 2016 8 Patient Matching

9. © 2016 Budget/Appropriations Process 9 Fiscal Year begins October 1 Annual appropriations bills may be considered in the House May 15 Congress completes action on the Budget Resolution April 1 President submits his budget (First Monday in February)

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11. © 2016 11 Patient Matching Background: In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandated a Unique Patient Identifier for healthcare purposes. Because of privacy concerns, the 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act prohibited the use of appropriated funds by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “promulgate or adopt any standard for a unique health identifier until legislation is enacted specifically approving the standard.”

12. © 2016 Patient Matching—Current Challenges Frequent mismatch between patients and their clinical data is an increasingly serious patient safety issue. Patient matching errors often begin at registration and can generate a cascade of errors that continue until a patient is discharged. A recent survey of AHIMA members revealed that over half of HIM professionals routinely work on mitigating possible patient record duplicates at their facility. Of those, 72 percent work to mitigate duplicate records on a weekly basis. Without intervention by HIM professionals, clinicians would have an incomplete record of a patient’s medical history, uncoordinated care with other providers, unnecessary testing or improper treatment(s), and workflow inefficiencies. 12

13. © 2016 AHIMA’s Request to Congress Omit the 1999 language in FY17 Appropriations legislation to allow the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work with industry to advance a multi-faceted initiative to improve patient matching. 13

14. © 2016 Telehealth 14

15. © 2016 Telehealth 15

16. © 2016 16 Telehealth

17. © 2016 Telehealth: Bills in Congress 17 S. 2484, the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health ActCreating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act H.R. 2948, the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2015the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2015 H.R. 3081, TELE-MED Act of 2015TELE-MED Act of 2015 H.R. 2725, 21 st Century for Military and Veterans Act21 st Century for Military and Veterans Act

18. © 2016 Current Challenges Health information management (HIM) skills are needed to document the flow of information from the virtual visit into an electronic health record (EHR) or across a health information exchange (HIE). Lack of interoperability between telehealth and traditional medical record keeping systems is a barrier to sharing such information with other providers, hospitals and/or health systems. HIM professionals can play a critical role in addressing such issues as information governance, privacy and security as well as patient engagement as they relate to telehealth. 18

19. © 2016 AHIMA’s Request to Congress Any expansion of telehealth services or coverage at the federal level should ensure that telehealth record requirements are consistent with other health record documentation requirements to ensure that the record is consistent, accurate, timely, and does not contain duplicative documentation. Include HIM professionals from your congressional district in future discussions on expansion of telehealth services at the federal level. 19

20. © 2016 Effective Communication Know your audience “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead” If possible, link the issue being discussed back to your area of expertise 20

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22. © 2016 Share Your Volunteering Experiences with AHIMA Share it with us and other health information management (HIM) professionals during the Advocacy Leadership Symposium on April 4. If interested in participating, please reach out to Monica.Linders@ahima.org forMonica.Linders@ahima.org more information. 22

23. © 2016 Hill Day Sponsor 23