By Susan Clark, Senior Director of Community and Advocacy

As a longtime member of AHIMA (13 years, holding various roles like Chair of the Advocacy and Policy Committee and President of the Indiana Component Association – you could say I am an AHIMA devotee) I was excited to head to Salt Lake City last week for the AHIMA24 Conference to connect with health information professionals from across the country and discuss the latest issues, challenges and innovations in Health Information (HI)!

Kevin Klauer, AHIMA CEO, brought an invigorating energy and a renewed commitment to the membership throughout the three-day conference. In addition to the informative sessions and networking opportunities, there was also plenty of time for socializing and I appreciate that Kevin, like me, dances like nobody is watching!

The conference keynote speakers were two world-class athletes, long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, and celebrated figure skater Scott Hamilton. In my youth I was a huge fan of Scott and the sport of figure skating, so that was an extra special treat. From both of them there was a resounding theme: failure is never the end. There is always an opportunity to get up and keep moving forward. 

The program tracks for this year’s conference were well rounded, serving the very diverse interests of those working in the health information industry. From medical coding and clinical documentation, to improvement of data integrity and governance, to privacy and security to health policy, the topics were vast and robust. If you know me, you can guess I spent the majority of the time in sessions covering the latter two topics. 

Key takeaways and themes from the sessions I attended include:

  • Electronic prior authorization is wonderful in theory but messy in implementation, and not without unintended consequences which will surely lead to additional refinements in guidance and regulation.
  • Experiencing a cybersecurity event is a dangerous and costly experience. We must do everything we can to remain diligent on prevention and compliance programs, including oversight of our numerous interconnected vendor partners. [An area of DirectTrust expertise – our accreditation programs validate security practices with a thorough third party assessment].
  • Our community is absolutely overwhelmed by trying to implement the requirements of the HIPAA reproductive rule. Being able to identify, segment, appropriately restrict, and manage consent is technically and operationally challenging, to say the very least. And then when you throw additional state laws in the mix that burden is compounded. 
  • On the policy front, all eyes are on the election so all bets are likely off for much to happen the remainder of the year, which is understandable with so much at stake. However, some items still remain bipartisan like cybersecurity and appropriate use of AI. We can likely expect to see updates to the HIPAA Security rule before 2025. Maybe they will fill the former role of the former ONC’s, “Office of No Christmas,” famous for putting out rules at holidays so we policy geeks can try to read while navigating the holiday season.

Of course there was also plenty of fun had by all, and yes, that included karaoke with a mix of Board members, exhibitors, and members! I now look forward to #AHIMA25 in Minneapolis, home to the Vikings and Prince’s Paisley Park, two of my favorite (purple) things. Let’s go crazy!