Policy issues, as well as pieces of legislation, have the potential to impact schools and programs within the allied health field.  The HEAL Coalition closely monitors issues that affect its member schools and programs, and educates policy-makers and other stakeholders on the need for parity between proprietary and traditional allied health schools.

Health IT Implementation

Legislation before Congress relating to the promotion of health information technology may have a significant impact on many allied health programs.  A health IT bill (HR 4157) passed by the House of Representatives in July 2006 provided a 2010 deadline for nationwide conversion to the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases.  This tenth version (ICD-10) would expand from 24,000 to more than 200,000 the number of billing and procedure codes used by physician’s offices and health insurance companies nationwide.

The Senate version of health IT legislation included no such ICD-10 deadline, and the House and Senate were unable to agree on a legislative compromise before the 109th Congress adjourned.  However, the 110th Congress may revisit health IT legislation this year that includes an ICD-10 deadline – or the Administration may propose an ICD-10 requirement for all medical facilities receiving reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.  These ongoing developments raise several substantive concerns for allied health schools that have programs relating to medical billing and coding assistants:

• Do schools currently have the technical and educational capacities properly to train students in the ICD-10 standard?  If not, how much time and resources will be necessary for schools to adjust their programs as part of this conversion?
• Will certificates and programs designed for the previous (ICD-9) standard become essentially irrelevant once the new standard is implemented?  If so, what will be the impact on schools as well as their current (and recently graduated) students?
• Do the greater number of billing codes in the ICD-10 standard – and the technical skills required to analyze and process them – warrant a longer, more intensive curricular program?
• Will the change in standards – along with more widespread adoption of health IT in provider offices, and interoperability among health records – impact employment opportunities in this field?  If so, how should schools adapt their curriculum and/or placement programs to ensure their students have meaningful and fruitful employment opportunities in the years ahead?

The HEAL Coalition is working with Members of Congress and their staff, along with key Executive branch officials, to represent the interests of allied health schools on this important legislation, and to educate member schools about its ramifications on their programs.

Write to your Member of Congress about important allied health issues!

Find out more about pending allied health legislation.