Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: September 28, 2015

The Information Governance Principles for Healthcare (IGPHC™) created a high-level framework of good practice in information governance (IG) and most of 2014 was spent digging into these eight pillars. As AHIMA started work on the IG Maturity Model a new concept emerged. The idea of build....

Author: Downing, Kathy; McLendon, Kelly

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2013

Accounting of disclosures (AOD) is one "patient right" listed within the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Since the rules were implemented in 2003, AOD has been a topic of much discussion but has not generated much regulatory action from the US Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for....

Author: Dooling, Julie A; Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 02, 2011

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, Stage I meaningful use incentives focus on electronically capturing health information in a structured format. While scanned images do not meet these requirements, electronic document management syst....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: October 2013

Editor’s note: This update supersedes the November 2009 practice brief “Implementing Electronic Signatures.”


Electronic health record (EHR) systems provide the ability to sign entries electronically; however, implementing and using electronic signatures (e-s....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: May 26, 2016

Data governance (DG) is the sub-domain of information governance (IG) that provides for the design and execution of data needs planning and data quality assurance in concert with the strategic information needs of the organization. Data governance includes data modeling, data mapping, data....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2018

By Kathy Downing, MA, RHIA, CHPS, PMP, CPHI, AHIMA vice president of information governance, informatics, standards, privacy and security

In 2013, when AHIMA began to promote the concept of information governance (IG) in healthcare, it was a fairly new concept for most organizations. Over t....

Author: Downing, Kathy; Fahy, Kristi; Foster, MeShawn; Hermann, Michelle; Meehan, Ann M.; Washington, Lydia; Woebkenberg, Jami

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2017

When an organization begins to implement an enterprise information governance (IG) program, one of the major initial tasks is to understand the scope and types of information in its possession. An inventory of an organization’s information is necessary in order to facilitate decision maki....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 23, 2017

With information governance (IG) emerging and gaining momentum in healthcare organizations, many questions arise. What are the goals of information governance? Why have some organizations decided they need formal information governance? How do healthcare organizations expect to benefi....

Author: Downing, Kathy; McMillan, Mac

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2013

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, in section 13411, requires the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct periodic audits to ensure covered entities and business associates are meeting HIPAA compliance requirements.


The findings of....

Author: Downing, Kathy; Mason, Jessica

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2015

A NEW REPORT to Congress from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), released in April, has put information blocking in the spotlight.1 The ONC report comes out on the heels of a recent article written by five US senators titled, “Where Is HITECH’s $35 Billion Dollar....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: December 15, 2016

Involving patients in the management of their health (patient engagement) encourages greater patient participation in care. It also increases the integrity of the health information stored by our health systems—patients will be the first to tell you if the information is incorrect. P....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: September 26, 2015

If you have not yet taken a deep dive into the 2015 information governance white paper from Cohassett Associates and AHIMA, you should. The survey that provides the basis for the white paper examines the readiness of healthcare professionals to address the strategic and technical demands o....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2018

By Kathy Downing, MA, RHIA, CHPS, PMP, CPHI

Information governance (IG)—the development of an organization-wide framework for managing information throughout its lifecycle and supporting the organization’s strategy, operations, regulatory, legal, risk, and environmental requirem....

Author: Downing, Kathy; Lucci, Susan; Lerch, Diane M

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: October 2013

Editor's note: This update replaces the November 2010 practice brief "HIPAA Privacy and Security Training."


On January 25, 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published the long-awaited Health Insurance Portability and Accoun....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: September 25, 2015

Within my 20 years in the realm of privacy officer, we called work in privacy first “appropriate access,” then “information protection,” and now, thanks to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), have finally settled on the term “priva....

Author: Downing, Kathy; Wiedemann, Lou Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2014

Innovative approaches to health information management (HIM) led Kansas City, MO-based Truman Medical Centers to become the 2013 AHIMA Grace Award recipient, announced at AHIMA’s 85th Annual Convention and Exhibit in Atlanta, GA, on October 28th before thousands of HIM professionals.

Author: Downing, Kathy; Odia, Godwin

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: November 2013

Editor’s note: This update supplants the 2009 practice brief “Redisclosure of Patient Health Information.”


Redisclosure is the act of sharing or releasing health information that was received from another source (e.g., external facility or provider) and made part....

Author: Schmidt, Peg; Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: August 2013

Editor's note: This update supplants the 2002 practice brief  "Release of Information for Marketing or Fund-raising Purposes."


Since its original compliance date in 2003, the HIPAA privacy rule required covered entities (CEs) to adhere to certain standards relative to the use....

Author: Beckett, Barb; Downing, Kathy; Gillespie, Joe D; Waugh, Traci

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2015

Since its initial adoption the HIPAA Privacy Rule has granted individuals the right to request restrictions on the use or disclosure of their protected health information (PHI) for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations (TPO), as well as for disclosures to family members and certai....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 04, 2016

Every health information management (HIM) leader has their hands full these days. All of us are working hard just to keep up. Despite the ever increasing pace at which the healthcare industry—and HIM—is moving forward, through AHIMA’s information governance (IG) pilot program, we also see....