President’s Message
September/October 2017

Welcome back from the summer. We have had a fruitful first quarter and have already broached the fall. The leaves will be turning beautiful colors and winter will soon be upon us. In the midst of these welcomed transformations, our MdHIMA Committees and the Board have been hard at work since our last report.

The Education Committee hosted its Quarterly Business Meeting on September 29, 2017 at the Living Legacy Foundation in Baltimore where among many educational sessions, five students from local colleges received special distinguished awards for academic excellence; three of which were present to receive their awards. You can find the names of the students along with their respective schools within this Newsletter along with their pictures. Please Save the Date for our next Quarterly Business Meeting which is scheduled for Friday, December 1, 2017 in Annapolis. It is guaranteed to be a highly sought after meeting just as it was last year.

In preparation for our next Quarterly Business meeting which will have a legislative focus, our business partner, Alexander and Cleaver, is working with our Advocacy Committee to identify distinguished speakers who will cover election year dynamics along with an educational session entitled Advocacy 101 to further prepare us for our future Lobby Day in February 2018. Many of your Board Members will be attending a Legislative Breakfast on November 14, 2017 at the Westin in Annapolis. We will receive a preview from the State’s leaders of what to expect in the 2018 General Assembly session. Alexander and Cleaver invited Hogan Administration Officials, the Senate President, Speaker of the House as well as several House and Senate Committee Chairpersons. This is a perfect time for the MdHIMA Board to network and have our voices heard on issues important to us. The Advocacy Committee has two new goals this year; 1) Workforce development, and 2) Coding job retention in the United States (U.S.). You will learn more about these initiatives in the next Newsletter. For those of you who missed concerns surrounding Coding jobs in the U.S., we reposted it in a Legislative Alert regarding Outsourcing of HIM jobs within this Newsletter.

Moving from our home state to another, Delegates will be going to the 89th AHIMA Convention on October 7 – October 11, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA. This year’s theme is Inspire, Innovate and LEAD. The Delegates will report back on their session which is guaranteed to be inspiring with all states represented during this full one day meeting.

The Data Quality Committee has been busy providing membership with ICD-10 CM and PCS coding updates which took effect October 1, 2017. The committee sponsored two coding roundtables outlining the changes which were significant this year. Overall, there were 360 new codes, 226 revisions and 142 deletions. Coding changes as well as ICD-10 CM guideline changes are outlined within the body of the Data Quality Committee report.

MdHIMA, through the help of a student volunteer, created a video to represent our profession which can now be seen on YouTube. We encourage each of you to view this video and pass it along to anyone who might be interested in the Health Information Management field or interested in a career field change.

We are always in need of volunteers. Committees such as Public Relations and Silent Auction/Fundraising Committee are activing seeking new members right now. Please get involved and continue to visit our website, AHIMA’s Engage Community’s website, attend a Quarterly Business Meeting, Lobby Day and/or join us at the National Convention or at our MdHIMA Annual Meeting.

Sincerely,

Linda Metro, RHIA
2017-2018 MdHIMA President