Meridian Allied Health Series
Health Information
Technician
Teacher’s Guide
Introduction
This teacher’s guide provides information to help you get the most out of Health Information
Technician. The contents of this guide will allow you to prepare your students before using
the program and to present follow-up activities to reinforce the program’s key learning points.
The program informs viewers about the career choices for a Health Information Management
Assistant, the training needed, and how to determine if this field is the right one for them.
Learning Objectives
After viewing the program, students will be able to:
•
•
•
•
Understand the opportunities available a Health Information Technician.
Describe the general duties performed and skills required for this job category.
Understand the specific career field outlook for a Health Information Technician.
Describe the certification requirements for becoming a Registered Health Information
Assistant.
National Educational Standards for Health Information Technicians
AHIMA Model Curriculum
• Demonstrate and utilize appropriate medical language and abbreviations
• Demonstrate an understanding of management of healthcare data
• Demonstrate the ability to abstract information from various sources and utilize various
coding classification systems
• Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate and effective application of legal and ethical
standards of practice.
• Analyze and utilize medical record science and apply knowledge to various healthcare delivery systems and payment methodologies
AHIMA Ethical Coding Standards
• Coding professionals are expected to support the importance of accurate, complete, and
consistent coding practices for the production of quality healthcare data.
• Coding professionals in all healthcare settings should adhere to the ICD-9-CM (International
Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, Clinical Modification) coding conventions, official
coding guidelines approved by the Cooperating Parties, the CPT (Current Procedural
Terminology) rules established by the American Medical Association, and any other official
coding rules and guidelines established for use with mandated standard code sets. Selection
and sequencing of diagnoses and procedures must meet the definitions of required data
sets for applicable healthcare settings.
• Coding professionals should use their skills, their knowledge of currently mandated coding
and classification systems, and official resources to select the appropriate diagnostic and
procedural codes.
• Coding professionals should participate in the development of institutional coding policies
and should ensure that coding policies complement, not conflict with, official coding rules
and guidelines.
2
Copyright © 2007 Meridian Education Corporation ®
• Coding professionals should maintain and continually enhance their coding skills, as they
have a professional responsibility to stay abreast of changes in codes, coding guidelines,
and regulations.
• Coding professionals should strive for optimal payment to which the facility is legally entitled,
remembering that it is unethical and illegal to maximize payment by means that contradict
regulatory guidelines.
Program Summary
The program provides information for high school students and young adults who are interested in one or all of three healthcare assistant-level careers. It provides both general information
on the healthcare industry as well as some detailed information about what these jobs might
be like, who they would appeal to, and the training needed to obtain them.
Main Topics
Topic 1: General Healthcare Industry Overview
Topics in this section include the universal need for healthcare professionals and the pride
in career for those who achieve required certifications.
Topic 2: Basic Job Description and Skill Sets
Understanding the job duties, required skills, typical work environment, and the pros and
cons of the health information technician field.
Topic 3: Certification and Educational Requirements
Careers in allied health all have certification requirements, primarily dealing with education
and passing an examination. The program covers the organization which issues the certifications,
the main subject areas for the certification examination, any educational and work experience
requirements, and more details on the examination itself.
Topic 4: Work Settings
This section contains a review of typical working settings for a health information technician.
Topic 5: Career Field Outlook
For each career in allied health, the program looks at the rate of expected growth, future
employment opportunities, related jobs for consideration, some typical salary ranges, and
opportunities for advancement.
Fast Facts
• A health information technician (HIT) manages, analyzes, and organizes patients’ medical
records. People in this career are also known as medical records technicians. With additional
training, an HIT can go on to become a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT),
and then a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA).
• Medical coding, or medical classification, is a facet of health information technology
expected to be especially valued by prospective employers.
3
• Employment opportunities for health information technicians are expected to explode over
the next 10 years, growing much faster than the average for all occupations in the U.S. It
is expected that this demand will increase by approximately 36% in that time frame. This
increased demand is due to the rapid growth in the number of medical tests, treatments,
and procedures that will be increasingly scrutinized by third party payers, regulators, courts,
and consumers.
• Increased job opportunities will be found in large group practices, specialists’ offices, health
maintenance organizations, nursing homes, mental health facilities, and home health agencies.
• Hospitals will continue to employ the most technicians, where evening hours and night
shifts may be part of the work week.
• An HIT may also find employment in the insurance industry or a public health department.
• The field of HIT requires much computer work, and very little contact with patients.
• The national median salary for an HIT in 2006 was $35,000 annually. The figure varies by job
setting—HITs working in surgical hospitals are generally better paid than those working in a
physician’s office. The typical salary range for recent HIT graduates is $12 to $15 per hour.
• To become an HIT generally requires graduating from a 2-year program at a community
college. Some schools also offer a certificate in coding.
Vocabulary Terms
confidentiality: Defined as “ensuring that information is accessible only to those authorized
to have access” and is one of the cornerstones of information security.
database: A file or system of files that provides a set of data which is sufficient for a given
purpose or for a particular data processing system.
diabetes: A disease in which the body is unable to metabolize sugar properly; there are many
complications associated with diabetes, making the coding of this diagnosis more difficult.
diagnosis: The process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms, and results of various
diagnostic procedures. It can also be the conclusion reached through that process.
diagnosis-related groups (DRGs): A system for classifying patient care by relating common
characteristics such as diagnosis, treatment, and age to an expected consumption of hospital
resources and length of stay. It forms the cornerstone of the prospective payment system, or
how the hospital gets paid for services associated with a particular diagnosis or disease.
diagnostic scans: The data or images obtained from the examination of organs or regions
of the body by gathering information with a sensing device to identify an illness. X-rays, CT
scans, and MRIs are all diagnostic scans.
4
differential diagnosis: Determination of the disease from which a patient is suffering when
the symptoms are similar to the symptoms of more than one disease.
electronic medical record (EMR): A medical record in digital format.
encoder: A coding system built into a computer, used by health information coders.
laboratory test: A test that is done in the laboratory where the appropriate equipment,
supplies, and certified expertise are available. Lab tests utilize samples of tissue, or saliva,
blood, or other fluids to help diagnose a disease or condition.
medical coding: The process of using a universal coding system to define and log medical
diagnoses and conditions. Also called “medical classification,” coding is used to track diseases,
and also by health insurance companies for reimbursement purposes.
medical history: A record of a person’s illnesses and their treatment, including pertinent
information such as drug use, allergies, and family history of disease. The medical history,
being an account of all medical events and problems a person has experienced, including
psychiatric illness, is especially helpful when a differential diagnosis is needed.
Medicare: The U.S. government’s health insurance program for people 65 years of age or
older, and certain younger people with specific disabilities. Medicare is funded by the Social
Security Administration.
procedure (or surgical procedure): Therapeutic procedure with instruments to repair
damage or arrest disease in a living body.
statistics: A branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation
of quantitative data and the use of probability theory.
transcriptionist: A person who makes a written copy, usually a typed copy of dictation
or handwritten notes. A medical transcriptionist transcribes reports dictated by a doctor
concerning a patient’s medical history, lab results, and other notes.
treatment plans: Care procedures or applications that are intended to relieve illness or
injury.
Pre-Program Discussion Questions
1. Have you ever considered a career in the healthcare field? If so, what types of jobs come
to mind?
2. What type and level of education do you think is necessary to become a health information
management technician?
3. What do you think a typical day for a health information management technician would be
like? What sorts of tasks do you think they would perform on the job?
4. What are the three most important factors you consider when thinking about a potential
career? How can you get more information to address those factors?
5. Do you think your personal interests (group sports, reading, computers, etc.) can translate
into professional interests? Discuss some ideas on this topic.
5
Post-Program Discussion Questions
1. Whose perspective from the program did you find most useful in learning about and
considering this career field? Why?
2. Was there anything that surprised you about the educational, certification, and experience
requirements for becoming a health information management assistant? Did any seem
very difficult to achieve? Did some seem not as difficult as you might have imagined?
3. What seems most appealing to you about this career based on the information in the
program? What do you think the health information management assistants interviewed in
this program would say were the biggest advantages of the career?
4. Which clinical setting most appeals to you based on the information in the program?
Which is the least appealing?
5. How were your impressions prior to the program about the daily routines of this field
reinforced or changed after viewing the program?
6. If this career field seems particularly interesting to you, what else can you do to learn more
about it?
Group Activities
• Divide the class into pairs of students. Have each pair consider the following statement:
“I would be a good health information technician.” Each pair will discuss their ideas about
this, then decide on one idea to present to the class for discussion.
• Students are to play the role of guidance counselor, providing information on the pros
and cons of a career as a health information technician. They should prepare materials for
a group discussion, including hand-outs and questions to write on the board.
• Break the class into pairs. Assigning one student to be the interviewer and one to be the
interviewee, have them conduct practice interviews for a specific job in the health information technician field. The interviewer should type up a list of questions, leaving room for
responses. The interviewee should type a list of qualifications for this job.
Individual Student Projects
• Have students take the Myers-Briggs assessment (either on paper, or online). Talk through
with each student their results and how they might influence their interest in pursuing this
career field or another in the program series.
6
• Have each student contact AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association)
or HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), either nationally or
locally. They should request more information about the field, and ask if it is possible to
directly contact association members or staff to discuss career choices. Students will then
make a report on their findings, including whether or not the staff was helpful to them as
a prospective member of both their association and their career field.
• Each student should take the information they learned in this program and create a poster
that might be hung in a job counselor’s or job recruiter’s office that stresses in a visual way
the key selling points and an appealing visual image to reflect a career as a health information technician.
Internet Activities
• Have students use the Internet to search for jobs as a health information technician. They
should note the variety of locations of the jobs, any salary information provided, certification requirements, and job duties. Students will then write up a report of their findings,
which will also include answers to the following questions:
1) Is the information found online consistent with the information provided in the program?
2) Are there geographic variations within the job postings?
3) As you browse through the listings, what appeals to you?
4) Do the listings reinforce your interest in this career, or dissuade you from considering it?
5) Should a particular job’s availability influence your career choice?
• Student should search online for discussion groups, message boards, blogs, or email listservs that pertain to being a health information technician. They should then track the
opinions and facts presented, and the issues raised, for one week. At the end of the week,
they’ll write a report of what the predominant concerns seem to be, and include an analysis
of the percentage of positive and negative comments, the split between facts and opinions,
and the ratio of practitioners with certification and without in the discussions.
7
Assessment Questions
Q1: The majority of new jobs for Health Information Technicians (HIT) will be in ____.
a) hospitals
b) physician’s offices
c) home health care
d) skilled nursing facilities
Q2: Information that coders need to interpret in assigning the proper diagnostic
code is described as being __________.
a) subjective
b) objective
c) both subjective and objective
d) neither subjective nor objective
Q3: Health information technicians can find employment in settings that other
healthcare professionals usually cannot. An example of such a setting is
______________________.
Q4: The typical salary range for recent HIT program graduates is $ ______ per hour.
Q5: HITs specializing in coding are sometimes called _____________________________ .
Q6: A movement toward __________________ in medical information management is
having a major impact on this career field.
Q7: Discuss other uses of the health information in medical records by some
specialized HITs.
Q8: Name two important aspects of being a health information technician.
Q9: List some characteristics of or strengths necessary in a typical HIT, as discussed
in the program.
Q10: What were some of the comments by the HIT students in the program?
8
Assessment Questions Answer Key
Q1: The majority of new jobs for Health Information Technicians (HIT) will be in ____.
A1: (b) Physician’s offices. For RHITs, the majority of jobs will be in hospitals.
Q2: Information that coders need to interpret in assigning the proper diagnostic
code is described as being __________.
A2: (c) Both subjective and objective. The text in a medical record includes hand-written
notes describing patient symptoms and medical and family history, the context of their
disease or injury, complications, and test results.
Q3: Health information technicians can find employment in settings that other
healthcare professionals usually cannot. An example of such a setting is
______________________.
A3: Any of these choices: a jail, a veterinary clinic, an attorney’s office, or an insurance
company. All of these settings work with medical records.
Q4: The typical salary range for recent HIT program graduates is $ _______ per hour.
A4: $12 to 15 per hour. Where the salary falls in this range depends upon geography (rural
versus urban; area of the country; big city versus small town). Also, reaching the man agement level can increase the salary greatly, to a range of $60,000 to $80,000 per year.
Q5: HITs specializing in coding are sometimes called ______________________________ .
A5: health information coders or medical information coders. This is one of the specialized
areas for HITs. This job involves assigning a code to diagnoses and procedures, referring
to coding guides and other resources.
Q6: A movement toward __________________ in medical information management
is having a major impact on this career field.
A6: computerized or electronic medical records. The move to electronic or computerized
medical records places a stronger emphasis on all computer skills in the educational
curriculum. The lack of paper charts eliminates the work of hunting down charts and
instead places the job focus on quality and thoroughness of the records. Also, there is
no physical wear and tear on the charts themselves, which frees up some administrative
time for HITs.
Q7: Discuss other uses of the health information in medical records by some
specialized HITs.
A7: Planning, improving processes, auditing records for quality and training purposes. The
common theme here is one of analysis of the data in these records in aggregate for the
improvement of patient care or financial strength of the organization with the information.
Q8: Name two important aspects of being a health information technician.
A8: Answers may include being accurate with information; thoroughness; and being able to
maintain confidentiality of patient data. The program stressed the issues of confidentiality
and privacy, so students should have addressed these in the answer.
9
Q9: List some characteristics of or strengths necessary in a typical HIT, as discussed
in the program.
A9: Answer may include being very detail oriented; being a “detective” hunting for the infor mation and the accurate code to reflect what is in the records; enjoying the sciences;
being good with technology; having a solid knowledge of coding; being organized; skill ful communication among clinicians, financial resources, and other organizations.
Q10: What were some of the comments by the HIT students in the program?
A10: “Very challenging and difficult program, but exciting”; “Many different opportunities
and work settings”; “Complicated classes but worth the work”; “Strong job prospects.”
It was particularly interesting that although students did mention enjoying being part of
the healthcare field, none of them mentioned anything about patients. They did talk a
lot about the challenges they face—it is not an easy two years of education!
10
Additional Resources
American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
www.ahima.org
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
www.himss.org
The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and
Information Management Education (CAHIIM)
www.cahiim.org
The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)
www.caahep.org
Medical Assistant Net
www.medicalassistant.net
Monster.com’s Healthcare Job Overview
http://healthcare.monster.com/articles/jobprofiles
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Data on Medical Records and Health Information Technicians
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos103.htm
Additional Resources at www.filmsmediagroup.com
Available from Films Media Group • www.filmsmediagroup.com • 1-800-257-5126
Health Information Management
• VHS/DVD
• Preview clip online
• Close captioned
• Correlates to educational standards
• Includes viewable/printable teacher’s guide and 15-minute bonus video
• Item # 29321
Compiling and retrieving up-to-date information on patients’ illnesses, injuries, and medical
history is more important than ever for effective medical care. This video focuses on opportunities in the field of healthcare information management and technology. Examples of HIMrelated positions are covered—including medical billing specialist, diagnostic and procedural
coder, and privacy officer—along with the two main types of schooling that precede a HIM
career: an associate degree leading to work as a Registered Health Information Technician,
and a baccalaureate degree required for employment as a Registered Record Administrator.
Patient confidentiality is an important subject in the video. A Meridian Production.
(15 minutes) © 2002.
11
Health Services
• VHS/DVD
• Preview clip online
• Close captioned
• Correlates to educational standards
• Item # 29741
This program looks at the required training, qualifications, and licensing for emergency medical technicians, pharmacists, physical therapists, and dental hygienists. The video also points
out the differences between a dietetic technician and a dietician as well as a licensed practical
nurse and a registered practical nurse. Health care professionals in all these positions talk
about the rewards of their chosen careers. A Cambridge Educational Production. (16 minutes)
© 2002.
The Patient Care Nursing Team
• VHS/DVD/Digital On Demand
• Preview clip online
• Close captioned
• Correlates to educational standards
• Includes viewable/printable teacher’s guide and 15-minute bonus video
• Item # 29320
Wherever people need wellness services, acute care for an illness or injury, or medical support
when bedridden or shut-in, nurses are standing by. This video introduces students to the
rewarding career of nursing, the largest healthcare profession in America. Incorporating interviews with working nurses from a range of medical specialties, the program describes the
challenges that nurses face in a variety of work environments—including hospitals, clinics,
schools, and homes—and outlines the education and licensing process that nurses must complete. The importance of organization, coping with stress, and the personal and emotional
benefits of nursing are also communicated. A Meridian Production. (15 minutes) © 2002.
Exploring Health Occupations
• 2-part series
• VHS/DVD/Digital On Demand
• Preview clip online
• Correlates to educational standards
• Includes viewable/printable teacher’s guide and 15-minute bonus video
• Item # 25377
This two-part series provides a detailed view of the field of medical technicians and technologists, EMTs, nurses, therapists, and assistants. A Meridian Production. The series includes
EMTs, Nurses, Therapists, and Assistants; Medical Technicians and Technologists. (15 minutes
each) © 2000.
12
www.meridianeducation.com
2572 Brunswick Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Toll Free: 1 800/727-5507
Fax: 1 888/340- 5507
36110