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In This Issue: Greetings and Happy New Year from Arkansas HIMSS! 2008 was a great year for our chapter. Our membership increased, we hosted events in Little Rock, Memphis,TN, and Orlando, FL., some new faces joined the board, and our chapter is financially strong. While growth in membership has been wonderful, Arkansas HIMSS always welcomes new members and depends on existing members to stay active (Renew today!). One of the great benefits of being actively engaged in Arkansas HIMSS are the dynamic discussions that happen during event planning and at HIMSS events themselves. As we begin 2009, we are excited to announce our educational plan for the year: 1st Quarter: An educational session on an 'Epic' EMR implementation - part of a series for "IT Planning for the 21st Century" to be hosted in NW Arkansas 2nd Quarter: Most Wired CIO panel discussion 3rd Quarter: Education on emerging Technologies and future views - to be hosted in Southern Arkansas In addition to the quarterly events listed above, we will be scheduling a few lunch and learn events throughout the year & a Statewide education meeting in Little Rock. We will also expand our outreach efforts to those beyond the Metropolitan areas of the state and hope that our more distant colleagues will be able to take advantage of the educational sessions planned later this year. Upcoming Events 81 Days left until the HIMSS09 Conference in Chicago, April 4-8 Register before January 27th to take advantage of the early bird registration discount. HIMSS09 is where physicians, nurses, HIT executives, pharmacists, vendors and healthcare IT professionals from around the world come together for a week that will forever change the face of healthcare IT. They come in search of solutions. They leave with a shared vision. Click here to Register! Board Meeting on February 4th, 2:00 - 3:00 PM Industry Topics FTC Red Flag Compliance The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal bank regulatory agencies, and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) have issued regulations (the Red Flags Rules) requiring financial institutions, creditors, & healthcare entities to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs, as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003. The programs must be in place by May, 2009, and must provide for the identification, detection, and response to patterns, practices, or specific activities – known as “red flags” – that could indicate identity theft. For more information on Red Flag, click here. e-Prescribing Incentive Program The Medicare e-prescribing incentive is a new program authorized under the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA). The program began January 1, 2009 and provides incentives for eligible professionals who are “successful e-prescribers”. The E-prescribing Incentive Program is currently based on one e-prescribing quality measure that is currently included in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). The PQRI is a reporting program that provides an incentive payment to eligible professionals who satisfactorily report data on a designated set of quality measures for covered professional services furnished during the applicable reporting period. Beginning in 2009, the e-prescribing quality measure will be removed from the PQRI, and it will become the quality measure used in the E-prescribing Incentive Program. This means that a physician or other eligible professional could potentially get two incentive payments: one for being a “successful e-prescriber” for reporting the e-prescribing quality measure under the E-prescribing Incentive Program, and one for satisfactorily submitting data on other quality measures under the PQRI. For more information, check out Medicare’s Practical Guide to the E-prescribing Incentive Program CPHIMS A mark of distinction. CPHIMS is a professional certification program for healthcare information and management systems professionals. Individuals who meet eligibility criteria and successfully complete the CPHIMS exam are designated a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS).The CPHIMS credential provides both internal and external rewards. It is a mechanism to validate your skill, knowledge and abilities. If you are considering taking the CPHIMS exam and would like to participate in a study group, please contact Philip. To apply for the exam or to review eligibility criteria, click here. Our Sponsors The Arkansas HIMSS Chapter thanks the following sponsors for their support of educational programs. Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield Cisco AT&T Sungard Tandberg Microsoft Windstream |
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