How Embracing Change Led to a Promising HI Career

By Kim Huey, MJ, CCS-P, CHC, COC, CPC, CPCO, PCS

Kim was a premed student at the University of Alabama where she took some Health Care Management courses and fell in love with the management side of health care. Realizing becoming a doctor was her mother’s dream for her and not her own, she dropped out of premed to pursue other career avenues.

Her first experience in HIM and coding was during a summer in college when she worked at a physician clinic at the hospital where her own mother worked. She filled in wherever they needed someone and spent some time assigning diagnoses for testing for nursing home patients. She noted, somewhat coyly, distinct memories of being directed to code hypertension for routine pap smears. Huey was also given opportunities to assist in patient care, but usually chose to work behind the scenes in billing and coding because she enjoyed making connections in patient care and was becoming passionate about documenting the full patient story.

Her first full-time job in health care was at the front desk of a busy family medicine practice, which also served as a residency program. Huey continued to work in general surgery and for multi-specialty practices where she advanced her coding and communication skills – both of which she believes are necessary to succeed in this field. At the general surgery practice, she had direct interaction with the physicians every day. Many times, she would head to their office with an operative report and codebooks and ask them to help work out the correct codes. She had dreams of becoming a consultant but was hesitant to take the leap to start her own business. In 1999, the practice she was working with had a financial crisis and could no longer afford her position, but they offered to help her become a consultant and become her first client. They also supported her as I started teaching coding classes to their employees. She noted that they became her best marketing by spreading the word to other practices in the state as well.

Although a member of AHIMA since 2001, in 2010-2011, three circumstances came together that encouraged Huey to become more involved with AHIMA. Firstly, she chose to pursue ICD-10-CM education through AHIMA and became an approved trainer. Given the opportunity, it was important to her to receive ICD-10-CM education from one of the cooperative parties. Secondly, she met Lynn Kuehn (FAHIMA and author of many coding textbooks) at a user’s group for an auditing software. Lynn quickly became a mentor and a dear friend to Kim. Thirdly, she pursued a Master of Jurisprudence in Health Law and met Sue Bowman (AHIMA Senior Director of Coding Policy and Compliance), who was one of her classmates. Watching both Lynn and Sue in their careers in coding inspired Huey. Lynn mentored her through her first AHIMA Press publication and as Huey noted, she “continues to speak into my life as a coding professional, educator, and author.”

February 2, 2024

Why did you decide to pursue consulting?  

To encourage those working in physician offices and hospitals to pursue excellence, to understand the “why” behind what they are doing every day, and to realize the impact of the work coding professionals do every day. 

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career?  

First, is helping physicians document the patient’s story appropriately and then get paid for the work they do. But also, seeing people who are interested in this profession gain the knowledge and confidence to succeed. I taught professional coding courses for five years and loved watching someone with little to no healthcare experience work hard, pass the exam, and then thrive in this profession. 

What do you see in the future for coding and the HI profession?  

Change! Winston Churchill is attributed to have said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Coding professionals prove their agility with annual coding updates, but future roles in HI and coding will require agility and willingness to consider broader and more frequent changes. Our job roles may change. How we perform the very basics of coding may change. The delay in implementation of ICD-10 lulled many of us into the idea of slow progress; however, change will be coming at a faster pace than ever before. We must be aware of change coming and willing to be active participants in change. 

Please complete this sentence: AHIMA membership matters to me because it both recognizes the importance of our roles as HI and coding professionals and provides us the tools to succeed and to pursue excellence.  

Please provide your perceptions on the following: 


Challenges and opportunities in HI in 2024

• Changes in reimbursement methodologies and the shifts to payment based on quality and risk. 
• Use of artificial intelligence in healthcare as a whole and coding specifically and understanding the changes this may make to our job roles. 

Suggested action HI pros can take in 2024 to have maximum impact on healthcare/patient care (even if small steps in their own work) 

HI professionals must: 

• Stay on top of changes in regulations – everything from privacy to coding to reimbursement, etc. 
• Learn about AI in the provision of healthcare as well as in HI – see Appendix S in CPT Professional for an overview of the extent of AI. 
• Consider what the next step in your career should be – whether it be enhancing current skills, expanding into a different specialty, or improving communication or management skills. 
• Cultivate an attitude that is open to change. There is always a sense of uncertainty, but change is coming – we can be part of it or be run over by it. 

Any specific actions you plan to take in 2024 to have maximum impact on healthcare/patient care 

• Learn more about AI and its role in healthcare. 
• Learn more about the use of AI in coding. 
• Continue to reach out to coding professionals with educational opportunities. 
• Continue to work with my clients to make sure that we never lose sight of our goal of telling each patient’s complete and accurate story. 

Steps HI pros can take in 2024 to thrive in the profession 

• Consider what your next steps should be – we should always be learning and growing.  
• Reach out to others in the profession – networking is key to our success. 

Small steps HI pros can take to advance their career especially anything you can think of AHIMA specific 

• Take advantage of every educational opportunity. I suspect that many AHIMA members do not take advantage of the resources we have as members: journal articles, Toolkits, opportunities for complimentary CEUs. 
• Network on the local, state, and national level.