If you feel there are a thousand healthcare quality measures out there, you’re about right. The Department of Health and Human Services has compiled an inventory of that many measures and more used by its agencies and operating divisions for reporting, payment, or quality improvement.

HHS says that this is the first time it has compiled a comprehensive list of the quality measures in a single location. It intends the inventory as a step in the effort to advance collaboration and synchronization within the quality measurement community. The measures and specifications in the inventory were self-reported by HHS divisions.

The list is available as a spreadsheet, sortable through dropdown menus. HHS says it will be adding more sorting options in the coming months.

An overview of industry activity around data quality, quality management, and data content standards is available on AHIMA’s Web site.

The clarifications continue over CMS’s approach to signature stamps. This past July CMS issued a clarification that stamps were not permissable on any medical record. Now a new clarification advises that some payers do not accept stamps but the Conditions of Participation do not prohibit them.

In the latest memorandum, dated October 24, CMS writes that the Conditions of Participation:

“do not prohibit the use of rubber stamps in a hospital setting, when properly controlled, for authentication of medical record entries. However, as a point of information for surveyors and providers, we are taking this opportunity to add an information-only statement to the interpretive guidance for §482.24(c)(1) to note that some payers, including Medicare, may not accept such stamps as sufficient documentation to support a claim for payment.”

Healthcare is badly in need of some cost-savings. A new study suggests that a change in the way we keep health records could save billions. Last week the industry got a look at a cost-benefit model for personal health records. According to the report, widespread use of PHRs could save the US healthcare industry between $13 and $21 billion a year.

The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), a nonprofit IT research center based at Partners HealthCare System in Boston, offers the projections in the study “The Value of Personal Health Records.” The study describes an evidence-based model that estimates the industry costs and benefits of four different PHR architectures. The study is the first of its kind to examine the different PHR architectures and show their direct cost savings to healthcare providers and payers, CITL officials say. (more…)

“HIM and health IT are finding that the scope and responsibilities of individual job functions are increasingly crossing department domains,” write the authors of the practice brief “HIM and Health IT,” published in this month’s issue. They note a “universal need for alignment between the two disciplines to ensure that both business processes and technology are in place to advance successfully toward a fully functional [electronic health record].”

The brief explores that need for collaboration through three domains: confidentiality and security, data use and maintenance, and terminology asset management. Seven Web-only extras offer tools to help with that alignment. (more…)

The November-December issue examines the workflow processes for organizations with hybrid records, or those with both paper and electronic health records. Other features report on planning forms automation, minimizing hybrid records, and how health IM and health IT can collaborate in the new electronic healthcare environment. (more…)

The Federal Trade Commission has pushed back the compliance deadline for its identity theft “red flag” rules. The original deadline was less than two weeks away. The new deadline is May 1, 2009.

The red flag rules require businesses that extend credit to their customers to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. Healthcare organizations fall under the rule, say attorneys. (more…)

AHIMA has submitted official comments on the adoption and implementation of the ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS classification systems. In part, AHIMA:

• Recommends that the implementation of the two classifications and the related HIPAA transaction updates should occur over a three-year period, with the date of final compliance no later than October 1, 2012
• Supports a single compliance date across the entire US healthcare industry and recommends that the compliance date, once designated, not be extended, which would cause confusion and add costs (more…)

UPDATE: CMS has since released new clarification stating that stamps are not prohibited under the Conditions of Participation, but that some payers may not accept them.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services no longer accepts signature stamps on any record. CMS attempted to clarify the scope of the ban this summer, but the message may not have percolated to all corners of the industry yet.

In July CMS stated that “stamped signatures are not acceptable on any medical record.” The prohibition applies to all providers and suppliers. Medicare will only accept “handwritten, electronic signatures or facsimiles of original written or electronic signatures.”

In spring CMS published a ban on signature stamps focused narrowly on the certification of terminal illness for hospice. The subsequent July notice explicitly included all medical records. (more…)

In Illinois healthcare organizations and trial lawyers are disagreeing over how much facilities may charge when fulfilling requests for health records that are stored electronically. Also at issue is whether facilities must provide their digital records in a digital format.

A state law lowering the copy fees for electronic documents went into effect January 1, 2008. The law, the result of negotiations that tempered reductions in earlier proposed legislation, is already being countered with a bill to create a higher flat rate for all copying, regardless of record format.

In part, the tug-of-war highlights the gap between expectations over health IT’s potential and the current reality on the ground. (more…)

The October issue explores the HIM jobs of tomorrow and how current roles will evolve in the future. Other features report on medico-legal issues in electronic records, HIM specialty tracks and associate degrees, new Joint Commission standards and processes, and successful recruitment strategies. (more…)