General Surgery Coding Alert

Let AHIMA guidance help your surgeons.

Not only is your general surgery practice required to provide protected health information (PHI) to patients when they request it, but doing so is in everyone's best interest.

Fact: Patients armed with their healthcare backgrounds are invested in their care and more willing to follow doctors' orders.

Problem: it can be challenging - both for your practice and for patients - to file and fulfill requests to gain access to PHI.

Look to Shared Request Form

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) created a new form for providers to "streamline the process when patients request their PHI under HIPAA and comply with the timeframe and fees set out by the Office for Civil Rights' (OCR) guidance of 2016," says AHIMA's "Advocacy and Policy Efforts" section on its website.

The AHIMA form is free, customizable, easy-to-read, download, and use. It offers detailed reasoning, outlining why you must follow certain HIPAA protocols (i.e. 30-day timeframe for delivery of PHI to patient) when patients request their medical records.

Resource: For a link to the AHIMA information and patient request form, visit http://www.ahima.org/about/advocacy/efforts.