Highly Trained Program Director, Leah Grebner, MS, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA Offers New ICD-10 Courses at Midstate College to Accommodate Medical Coding Systems Change.
The health information management (HIM) and health information technology (HIT) professionals who play an integral role in today’s rapidly evolving healthcare industry will be acknowledged throughout the United States and Canada during the American Health Information Management Association’s 22nd annual Health Information and Technology Week, November 6 through 12. This year’s event is themed, “Accurate Health Information for Care YOU Trust.”
The focus of Health Information and Technology Week is to raise awareness and celebrate the evolution of HIM and HIT professionals, and the benefits of their profession working collectively to deliver quality healthcare through quality information.
To celebrate Health Information and Technology week, Midstate College will display information about the programs offered (see below), materials about the Health Information and Technology field, and faculty will be available to discuss this career field as an option with students that are interested.
One major development in the HIT career field is that the United States is in the process of changing medical coding systems for the first time in over 30 years. Midstate College is already starting to introduce basics of ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS into the coding courses, but will be implementing a complete course starting in the spring of 2012. Midstate is currently in the process of planning a variety of options for training experienced ICD-9-CM coders and are seeking input from the medical community in order to ensure that we are able to best meet everybody’s needs.
Program Director, Leah Grebner, MS, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA, has received extensive training for both using and teaching ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. She is an AHIMA-approved ICD-10-CM/PCS trainer to conduct training programs for coding professionals in the ICD-10-CM/PCS coding systems. In addition, Leah has served as the co-chairperson of the AHIMA ICD-10 Academic Transition Workgroup. She has been providing continuing education presentations about ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS for AHIMA, ILHIMA, CIHIMA, the local AAPC chapter, and groups of physician office practice managers since 2004. Most recently, Leah was the primary author of Medical Coding: Understanding ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS, which will be published by McGraw-Hill in January 2012.
Midstate College offers three programs in the Health Information Technology department for students interested in pursuing careers in health care, but working with physicians, nurses, lawyers, administrators and executives, rather than directly with patients.
Health Information Technology involves acquiring, analyzing, and protecting digital and traditional medical information vital to providing quality patient care.
Medical Transcription involves listening to and transcribing important medical data, dictated by physicians, for permanent patient files within a professional health care setting or from home.
Medical Coding is the process of reviewing medical information documented in patient records to translate the documentation into codes that are utilized for billing, statistics, research, and many other purposes.
The Health Information Technology AAS degree program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). Graduates of a CAHIIM-accredited program are eligible to take the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) exam.
For more information, please contact Ashley Spain, arspain@midstate.edu or 309.692.4092 ext. 5021