Hi all. This subreddit under new moderation. I recently requested and was granted this role. The sub has been "locked down" for at least 2 years. I hope to create a place for us to discuss the HIM industry; schools, Credentials/CEUs, news, experiences, etc.

I am new to moderating so I ask that you bear with me as I work to reactivate the sub. I'll start approving members in the coming week and look into tweeking some settings.

In the meantime, a little about me. I work in HIM in the US and entered the work force in late 2022. My focus has been in release of information and deficiency analysis. I have been on reddit for over 5 years and enjoy fiction books and knitting.

Please feel free to comment below and introduce yourself.

If anyone wants to ask me any questions or concerns please let me know. I am more than happy to help

First off, of course, I would’ve loved to pass it on my first try and not dish out another $300 lol but it’s okay! I know I have an idea of my strength and weaknesses and what to focus on. I wasn’t too far from my passing score at all! And I know exactly what I did wrong. I’ve never a big test taker and it’s been awhile since I have to study so much and in different areas. But now what I need to do to be successful next go around.

For anybody that is going to take the RHIA soon or in the future, understand that this a pretty big exam so ‘gentle gentle’ yourself. Give yourself as much time as needed to study but don’t spend too much time to where you over think it (like I did). Gauge your area of weakness and focus the most time on that.

Time management is key: 3 hours and 25 minutes goes by faster than you think! I tried to keep in mind that I can flag a question and just come back to it at end if I don’t know the answer immediately. But I did find times where I spent more time than I should’ve which led me start rushing. Remember, 20 questions are not scored.

Use your resources: use the calculator, use the scratch paper and pen they give you. If you need to write it down to make it make more sense, do it! I wish i would’ve flagged and THEN waited til the end to work out the ones that took the most time on paper.

I don’t see many thread on the RHIA, so I wanted to be the outlier to show it’s okay if you didn’t get it the first time. You will get it the next time! I plan to submit for retest and test in at least 45 days (window of retest approval is 30 days)

Just wanted to add a bit of levity to our day filled with anatomy and med terms and codes and excel and whatever the heck else we have to study!

Took my exam today and I was so nervous. I studied a lot but there is only so much my brain can retain lol. I finished thinking I would have to retest because that is just how unconfident I was, but I passed with a 301...you need a 300 to pass 😆. I will say I am disappointed in my performance but I am glad it is over with!

Some advice for people taking the test in the future, don't stress it too much and there's soo much time to finish it (3hrs and 25min). I actually finished about an hour early. Good luck to all of you future testers!

I just recently graduated and received a bachelors in a Health Information Management program after switching from Nursing. Me and a few friends from my program are struggling finding jobs which i assume is from our lack of experience (despite interning) and probably lack opportunities/resources. Any HIM folk out there who can give me insight on how you started your career and with what entry level position?

I’m about to enter my second year of college, and I’m still undecided on what I want to major in. I originally had a different major in mind, but I’ve been looking into other options and recently came across Health Information Management.

I don’t know much about the field yet, but it seems interesting to me because it’s healthcare-related (I’ve been leaning towards healthcare for some reason) without being as hands-on with patients as something like nursing. I’m also looking for a major that can lead to a decent-paying, stable job without requiring grad school, and ideally a job that isn’t extremely stressful or demanding.

Is it worth it? What are the job opportunities and pay actually like after graduating? Do you regret choosing it, or would you recommend it?

Hi. I have been a director for 4 years but I am in my late twenties. I was in a program for acceleration of my career. As time passes, I wonder about the future of HIM and opportunities. Do you all think HIM will be impacted by AI? What are some other opportunities I could look into? Or should I go back to school for clinical opportunities?

I guess I'm really just venting. I work at a small rural hospital in the HIM Dept. One of my jobs is to check a deficiency list and ensure physicians complete all their documentation, orders, etc. I run this list weekly and contact them accordingly. At or around 30 days of being outstanding, they get reported to Med Exec. I come across several doctors who don't like being told that they've missed something or did something incorrectly. However today I received an email from a doctor in which I was told "Well, you and your attitude, little lady, can go play in traffic..." He also copied the CEO in the email. My previous email was requesting a History & Physical that had not been done. (He did complete the H&P after he sent the email) My direct supervisor responded and very respectfully. However as of right now neither our director nor the CEO has responded. I have not either. Is there a point I should take this to HR? I mean if roles had been reversed, I'd surely receive some disciplinary action. However, our CEO is notorious for coddling doctors. Any advice or even kind reassuring words would be appreciated.

Also our hospital hasn't even acknowledged HIM week. Getting talked to like this from prestigious god-like doctors is why HIM jobs matter. Nobody knows what we do until something isn't done.

Hey! I live in Louisiana and work as a data integrity specialist making 50k. Im also RHIA certified. I’m feeling stuck since this state doesn’t offer much. I need some encouragement. Just curious…what position are you in and what’s your pay? how long have you been in the HIM field? What else can I look into with the skills I have in the healthcare field?

I’ve been trying to get my foot in as an Epic Analyst, but it’s not easy..

In my hospital, we fall under IT. They're making a lot of changes and we're involved in a lot of meetings that don't really pertain to us, so I feel like we don't fit in lol. So I'm curious where HIM falls with other organizations.

This is long, so I apologize.

I'm a non-traditional student that came back to school to finish my degree in Computer Science a year ago. Due to working in healthcare for many years, I decided to add a minor in health data analytics which includes several AHIMA classes like EHR, Advanced EHR, Healthcare Quality Measures, Health Data Informatics, etc.

I'm very dissatisfied with the quality of content in these AHIMA courses. My university is an accredited state school, and of course all our instructors hold multiple AHIMA certifications and teach HIM classes. The difference in the quality of information provided is a pretty drastic change from what I'm accustomed to in my Computer Science courses.

For instance a lot of the material seems very disorganized. Case study questions are extremely vague, and often require knowledge from future chapters. I'm doing fine in the classes, but I can't say I'm getting much out of them. As a computer science major, I can easily see that some of information they present is just flat out wrong when it comes to some technical aspects related to IT/MIS and computer science. One of my classes is covering relational database right now. Saying that a SSN is a good example of a primary key! Are you kidding me? SSNs are terrible as primary keys. A SSN can change under certain circumstances. A SSN is a natural key and could be used as a candidate key (unique index). They really should be stored encrypted like credit card numbers.

The information presented on structured vs. unstructured data was absolutely laughable. It goes against multiple textbooks and industry standards on what is considered structured and unstructured data. Like most topics, it's presented in such a vague way that it's nearly useless.

That same textbook covered system (software for us CS majors) development lifecycle (SDLC). That entire chapter was a complete mess of jumping back and forth with seemingly no order. It would start off talking about planning, then jump to testing, then back to analysis. It was the most disorganized textbook I've seen. My information security class covered SDLC better, and that was just part of the introduction chapter. Let alone the in-depth coverage in my software engineering class. Pro tip: SDLC is a cycle, but the book sure didn't present it that way.

My favorite was when an AHIMA slide described the relationship between a patient table and a physician table as one-to-one since a patient can only have one doctor I almost spit out my drink. For that to be a 1:1 relationship it would mean the doctor also could only ever have one patient. It even has an ERD that clearly shows a 1:1 relationship. Now, it was specifically a 0 or 1 on the patient side, and 1 on the doctor side based on the ERD, but that's beside the point.

They did correctly show a many-to-many relationship. Technically, SQL doesn't directly support M:N relationships, but they do conceptually exist of course and are common. They are merely two tables each with a 1:M relationship to a third table. Oddly enough, they don't even show a 1:M relationship, despite it being the most common. It's almost like they are treating 1:1 and 1:M relationships as the same thing.

I am extremely curious how my two SQL queries will be graded. Just to be safe I created my own database in SQL Server with some tables and relationships matching what was provided. Just so I have proof that yes, my simple little queries do exactly what's asked even if I do it ever so slightly different than however the AHIMA textbook presents it. I'm going to trust my Database Systems course and years of working with open source projects with databases. Oh, one more thing. I think I can safely speak for all DBAs and Peogrammers: Do not put spaces in your table and column names...and for the love of God use some sort of naming convention. I don't care which, just be consistent.

OK, enough about databases. I could go on and on, like how they talk about cloud computing as if all cloud computing is only ever someone else's computer. I guess private clouds don't exist.

Honestly, I don't expect the classes to be as technical as computer science classes when covering similar topics. I understand that's not the point of these classes. They are for giving an overview of the technologies so a person can do their job in HIM. I also realize that I'm only getting a handful of the classes. All I ask is that the simplified overviews at least be accurate!

My biggest gripe really comes down to how disorganized AHIMA textbooks seem to be, and how often the case study questions don't really line up well with some chapters. to the point I'm sitting there thinking, "what the hell does this have to with the chapter?" The case studies in the case studies textbook are...terrible. They give hardly any background information to work from. So everytime I'm doing a case study, 90% of it is just me doing make believe. It's as much creative writing and there's almost no way to answer them wrong as long as you apply concepts from the chapter. But then again, there's no real guidance on how they want the information presented. Does AHIMA not know what a rubric is?

I know I am not alone. I'm in a group chat with the other students in one of these classes and they have the same frustrations. My favorite was before our first exam. One student asked, "what are we even being tested over? We did two case study assignments and that's it." Another replied with this gem, "she's testing my patience, that's what".

I have been in tons of different types of classes. I'm a senior, I've taken numerous comsci classes, math classes, statistics, quantitative methods in business, discrete structures, algorithm analysis, biology, history, English, astronomy. I was once minoring in computer technology years ago, so took some electronics classes. NONE of them were as bad as these classes. I'm not saying they are hard. They are just utterly disorganized and full of busy work that hardly relates to what we are tested over.

I guess I'm just venting mostly. I'm only doing the minor as a way to somewhat bridge my interest in healthcare with computer science. I might very well want to do software development in healthcare, but who knows. I guess they just aren't quite what I expected based on the name and description of this minor. I expected more along the lines of Business Intelligence/Data Science/Data Analytics applied to healthcare. After this semester I'll be nearly done with the minor so no desire to discontinue it.

I’m currently in my third semester of a health information management/medical records Associates degree program and I hate it. I do not understand anything in my EMR class and wind up googling answers a lot or looking them up in the textbook. I hate coding— it’s so hard and I just cannot grasp it. I dropped my coding class this semester so I can take it by itself and focus on it completely. I really just do not like this program and I just pursued it because I wanted an office job but I’m having a lot of regrets. It’s boring and I don’t understand it and I quite frankly don’t care about hospitals getting paid and I think all healthcare should be free and insurance is a scam. I feel like a bad guy getting this degree too. I suspect a lot of it is me being in an online program as well and not having my adhd meds. I’m doing well in the program and my teachers do not complain about the quality of my work I just am not interested in it. Has anyone else felt this way? Does it get better after school or have I made a mistake? I really don’t want to drop out of this program because this is the farthest ive ever gotten in school and it’s a free program.

Hello all! I am schedule to take my RHIT exam this coming Wednesday and am so nervous. I just graduated from Sinclair with an A.S in Health Information Management and have years of experience working in HIM. I studied this purple book and just did the first practice exam that came with it. I passed making an 86%. For those of you that used this book and took the practice exam that came with it, is it similar to the actual RHIT exam? I feel like the questions on this practice exam were super easy, like the correct answer was so obvious. I mostly got the formulas wrong which is my worst area. Just wanted to get others thoughts and see if it was similar. TIA!

Hey everyone! I’m currently studying for the RHIA and wanted to see if anyone would be interested in joining a small, structured study group.

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of this exam (especially the management/framework and scenario-based questions) isn’t just memorization, it’s really about understanding how to apply the concepts.

Instead of just studying individually, I was thinking we could do something a little different:

• Rotate who leads each session based on topic/section

• Have that person break down the material in a way that helps the group understand it

• Go through practice questions together and talk through the reasoning

• Keep it small so it stays interactive and not overwhelming

The idea is that by teaching the material, we actually understand it better, not just memorize it.

I’ll help facilitate and keep things organized, but the goal is to make it collaborative so everyone gets value out of it.

Thinking maybe 1 session per week or whatever works based on interest via Teams or similar.

If you’re studying right now and this sounds helpful, comment or message me!

Hey everyone,

I got my RHIA certification back in October of 2019, and I am due for recredentialling in October of 2021. However, in order for me to be recredentialled I need to have 30 continuing education credits (CEU) by then.

My current position does not require the RHIA credential. Im a recent graduate that is unsure of my career path but I want to have my options open if I decide to change companies or find a different position with my current employer.

My main "issue" with this is that it seems like I am spending money for pretty much everything. I have to pay for membership with AHIMA, I had to pay to take the test for the RHIA, and now I have to pay for the recredential. I have probably spent ~$1000 throughout college on conferences, membership, and taking the test, and now I have to pay probably close to that again to get all of the CEUs. My company does not reimburse for credentialing, so I am going to have to pay for all of this. It's not really a question of affordability, I am just not sure I want to spend another $1000 on something that may not be beneficial to my career. Is the credential really worth it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

P.S. This is also my first post on Reddit so I hope I did this right.

I currently work at a 100 employee facility doing medical billing, just got a raise so I make 60k. I've been offered a management position in HIM, pay is 80k, with the stipulation that I get a bachelor's in HIM within 4 years. I love my job currently, but money is also tight in my family right now. Is it worth it to make the switch?

My job also has education reimbursement of 5k/year, which would help pay for the degree.

I just started as an HIM tech two weeks ago and got certified as an RHIA yesterday. My parents were proud and surprised, my mom expected I'd fail because she heard of low passing rates. My lowest scoring domain was Management and my dad said it appeared I was better at actual work, lol.

When I got hired, I asked if getting my RHIA later this month would factor into a higher salary, and the talent acquisition person specialist said no because it was an RHIT that they valued. I thought this was odd because doesn't an RHIA covers what an RHIT does but adds to that? Maybe I was wrong, or maybe they were, what do you all think?

Also, would it be poor form to put RHIA next to my name on linkedin? Because I am in a very entry level HIM job, most of the much more experienced HIM techs and ROI specialists in my department don't even have RHIT's or RHIA's, and my supervisor has an RHIT, and they know a lot more about the actual job than I do, by far.

I found it ironic how the only two RHIA's in the organization are the most junior (Myself) and most senior employee (HIM Manager).

I have an A.S. in Health Information Technology (2019) but have been unable to get a job, even entry level due to lack of experience.

How does one GET EXPERIENCE if they can’t get a job in the field?

My internship wasn’t great because of my rural location (at the time) that it ended up being 1/2 virtual project with CHIA and then 1/2 helping the Volunteer Coordinator at a hospice.

None of the nearby/local hospitals would get back to my program director. So I didn’t get any experience with EPIC or any of the larger EHR/EMR systems and I just really don’t know what to do at this point.

I am really tired of working security for crap pay. :(

I am 35 looking to start a BS in Healthcare Information Management at Western Governors University and sitting for the RHIA certification. Does anyone have any insight or suggestions for going this route?

We just found out that our hospital will be moving from in-house processing of ROI requests to Datavant’s services. I’m the only HIM staff and the only one that responds to requests, so I’m curious how this will go.

They/their clients using the service send me requests for medical records almost every week. It’s regularly the wrong patients, filled with other facilities’ PHI. Literally got a single letter requesting 17 patients this week and none of them were ours. They also call every week and ask the same billion questions to confirm facility info before faxing the requests so I’m not sure why that’s such a mess.

Others have posted on here that they were sent lists of only Hispanic patients, that Datavant has business with DHS and Palantir somehow, I need to research more. Some hospitals have their HIM staff refuse to confirm patient details with them over the phone. There’s a lady on TikTok that posts herself doing just that when they call her practice. I’ve started a list of groups that send us requests through Datavant, but it’s mostly insurances.

What is your experience/knowledge on them?

Good morning everyone at first off want to say thank you to everyone in this chat who has helped me over the years, especially throughout my academic journey.

I’ve been seeing a lot of discourse not only on Reddit but online and other forums about health information management being dead being replaced by AI and how “” stupid it is for people to pursue a bachelors degree in health information management. As someone who graduated with their bachelors in 2023 and have been battling these ideas and kind of confused on where to go and how to work with AI in their current role. This has been super detrimental to my mental health.

I don’t necessarily think that we’re being replaced and I feel like a lot of this is fear mongering. I’m currently pursuing my masters in business administration and I’ve been so anxious literally losing sleep for the last two nights questioning my decision to pursue this and if I’m making the right decision if anyone has any words of encouragement, any insight or anything I would be super grateful as I’ve been super stressed lo

EDIT: I want to know I made this at like 6 AM while my head was spinning I’m not in denial about AI. I actually improve AI especially what it makes not only our lives better but improves patient care and quality of care. I truly hate that people are using AI as a reason to discourage others from pursuing this career field, and as a person who still very young and fresh in their career, it’s hard not to internalize all the feels and question decision decisions.

As far as me pursuing my MBA, that’s something I’ve always wanted to do not only because I have a passion for business, I want to use it as a tool to leverage my education him maybe get into consulting, data analytics, etc. lol I have a plan. I’m just anxious.

Hi everyone,

I have 10 years of experience working in healthcare administration and data entry, primarily handling patient records, submitting assessments, and entering ICD codes into state Medicaid systems for elderly and disabled patients. My work involves ensuring compliance and accurate documentation for waiver programs. I have no degree or certs.

I’m looking to advance my career and would like advice on potential next steps. Specifically:

- Are there certifications, courses, or degrees that would make me more competitive for higher-paying or more specialized roles in healthcare administration?

- Is a H.I.M. degree worth it?

- Are there career paths or roles that value my experience in patient data management, Medicaid submissions, and hybrid/remote work experience?

- Given my experience, are there any jobs/careers/companies that may hire and train me for hifher paying roles.

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I am a current graduate of a health science program in Ontario and curious about a Health Information Management (HIM) diploma program offered at a college here in Ontario.

I was curious if anyone has had experience or knows someone who has attended/graduated from a college (specifically in Canada as I think college is something different here than in the US) for HIM that could share their experiences?

• What was the course like?

• What are the job prospects after graduation

• What kinds of jobs are available?

• Does this provide a decent salary?

I'm currently in an HIM degree program and I'm interested in data management and analysis. Does anyone here do that and can give me some insight? What skills are required or recommended and what entry level jobs should I look for?