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The AHIMA Advocacy Agenda

Our mission of "empowering people to impact health" is rooted in our founder's belief that great possibilities are achieved when we work together toward a common goal.

At AHIMA, our common goal is to transform health and healthcare by connecting people, systems, and ideas. This transformation starts with the most powerful currency for change in the healthcare ecosystem: health information.

The AHIMA 2023 advocacy agenda will leverage our knowledge and expertise of health data and information to influence the public policy environment for the benefit of individuals, communities, clinicians, and the healthcare workforce. Download our agenda to learn more. To read our policy statements, click each statement’s link within our agenda.

US Capitol

How Do the New EHI Definition and Information Blocking Provisions Impact Your Organization?

By October 6, 2022, actors are expected to adhere to the full scope of EHI per the information blocking final rule, or else risk noncompliance. AHIMA22 attendees will hear directly from the policymakers and others working to implement information blocking and its related provisions at a session moderated by the AHIMA Policy and Government Affairs team.

August 2, 2022

AHIMA, AMIA, EHRA Release Report on Operationalizing Definition of EHI

AHIMA, AMIA, and EHRA announced today the release of a final report that examines key issues related to operationalizing the definitions of “electronic health information” (EHI) and “designated record set.”

July 20, 2022

Provider Role in Protecting Patient Confidentiality, Privacy, and Security Beyond HIPAA

This list of resources from AHIMA will assist health information professionals with educating patients on how to protect the confidentiality, privacy, and security of their health information in environments not covered by HIPAA.

June 13, 2022

Information Blocking Recommendations Sent to HHS

AHIMA and several other organizations urged the Secretary of Health and Human Services to direct the ONC, OIG, and CMS to work together to provide additional education to providers related to information blocking laws and requirements. 

May 2, 2022

AHIMA Comments on March 2022 C&M Code Proposals

AHIMA submitted comments to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on ICD-10-CM/PCS code proposals discussed at the March ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting.

AHIMA Policy Statements

  • Individual Access: Enhance individuals’ electronic, timely, and seamless access to their health information.
  • Consumer Engagement: Empower individuals to make better decisions about their own health by using trusted data from traditional and emerging data sources.
  • Affordability: Ensure patients have access to timely and accurate information about the cost of healthcare services to make informed care decisions, including information about their expected out-of-pocket costs.
  • Privacy: Address privacy and security gaps of HIPAA non-covered entities that collect, access, use, disclose, and maintain electronic health information.
  • Cybersecurity and Information Security: Enhance and improve the sharing of cyber threats, risks, and cyber hygiene practices in real-time.
  • Behavioral health: Encourage policies that further integrate and coordinate behavioral health information with physical health information.
  • Healthcare Reform: Promote the continuity of accurate, timely, and trusted health information regardless of health insurance coverage.
  • Data Quality: Advance the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of health data by influencing the development and maintenance of national and international coding standards.
  • Data Integrity: Influence and advance policies that promote the accuracy, consistency, and trustworthiness of health information regardless of its form, origin or application.
  • Health Equity: Advocate for the collection, use, and sharing of accurate, unbiased, complete, and standardized health information as an integral part of efforts to reduce and eliminate health disparities and inequities.
  • Value-Based Care: Promote new payment and delivery models that leverage accurate, timely, and complete health information—as well as technology—in new and innovative ways.
  • Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring Technologies: Expand access to care through the use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring technologies, while ensuring the continuity of accurate, timely, and trusted health information and also protecting patient confidentiality, privacy and security.
  • Patient Identification: Enhance accurate patient identification to improve patient safety, interoperability, and the appropriate use of workforce resources.
  • Integrating Clinical and Administrative Data: Enhance and influence efforts to better integrate clinical and administrative data to improve the patient experience, reduce clinician burden, and potentially reduce costs.
  • Interoperability: Champion modern data standards (including application programming interfaces) and related infrastructure to support technical, functional, and semantic interoperability across healthcare.
  • Public Health: Advocate for the use of accurate and timely data for public health responses and initiatives while protecting the confidentiality, privacy, and security of an individual’s health information.
  • Social Determinants of Health: Promote the collection, access, sharing, and use of social determinants of health (SDoH) to enrich clinical decision making and improve health outcomes, public health, and health inequities in ways that are culturally respectful.

Advocacy & Policy Council

The Advocacy and Policy Council advises our leadership and Board of Directors on critical areas for AHIMA’s strategic engagement in advocacy and public policy that align with our mission and vision.

Learn more about the APC council members.

Patient looking at electronic health record

Living the Pledge

As a health information professional, you understand the cost of patient misidentification. Enter a competition and tell us how you or your organization are living the Naming Policy Pledge.

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