Health Information Management, AAS

The Health Information Management Program prepares the student for a variety of job opportunities including medical coder, department manager/supervisor, data analyst, and clerks who process records verifying accuracy and completeness. This program blends knowledge and skills from health information and business management, with computer applications and medicine to provide the necessary foundation for success. The student will be eligible to sit for the RHIT certification upon successful completion of the program.

Topics of study include medical coding (ICD-10-CM/PCS and CPT-4), legal and ethical issues in health care, quality and performance improvement, health care statistics, reimbursement concepts, indexes and registries related to health care, and the management aspects of health information.

This associate’s degree program incorporates both the Medical Scribe Certificate and Medical Coding Specialist Certificate program as the first year. Completion of that portion of the program, along with relevant work experience, can prepare a person to take the certification examination offered by the American Health Information Management Association to become a Certified Coding Associate (CCA) and after further experience, the Certified Coding Specialist (CCS). Individuals skilled in clinical coding are employed as coders for hospitals, physician’s offices, peer review organizations, clinics, consulting firms, and/or insurance companies.

The hands-on experiences occur during HIM248 Practicum II in cooperating healthcare facilities.  Students are responsible for submitting potential practicum site information to the program director who will obtain practicum authorization and work in conjunction with the HSPS Deans Office to facilitate creation of the contract between EGCC and the clinical site.

The Health Information Management accreditor of Eastern Gateway Community College is the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). The College’s accreditation for associate degree in Health Information Management  has been reaffirmed through 2023-2024.. All inquiries about the program’s accreditation status should be directed by mail to CAHIIM, 200 East Randolph Street, Suite 5100, Chicago, IL, 60601; by phone at (312) 235-3255; or by email at info@cahiim.org.

Upon successful completion of the program, the graduate will be able to:

• Sit for the RHIT, Registered Health Information Technician certification through AHIMA.
• Code, classify, and index diagnoses and procedures for reimbursement, standardization, retrieval, and statistical analysis.
• Apply legal/ethical principles, policies, regulations, and standards for the control and use of health information including the electronic health record.
• Evaluate scenarios for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) Principles in a professional workplace setting.
• Create and Manage healthcare indexes/registries.
• Collect, analyze, and present healthcare statistics by creating Excel spreadsheets and various graphical displays such as control/flow charts/line graphs/histograms.
• Create a mock quality and performance improvement committee including identifying problems, completing a root cause analysis, designing dashboards and fishbone diagrams.
• Design a hypothetical HIM department including budget, staffing, strategic plan, mission, and vision utilizing the management concepts of planning, organizing, leading and controlling.