Top healthcare BPO experts to address industry opportunities and challenges at HIMS Conference 2015

MAKATI CITY -- GLOBAL Healthcare Information management experts will converge on August 27 at The Peninsula Manila in Makati City for the upcoming Healthcare Information Management (HIMS) Conference 2015.

This year’s theme “Meet Great Minds. Seize Opportunities” aptly describes the participation of international HIMS experts at the sixth run of the flagship annual event of the Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines (HIMAP), the country’s premier trade organization of healthcare BPO companies.

The event is expected to strengthen HIMAP’s partnerships with two premier information management certifying bodies, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC).

“AHIMA and AAPC are the leading training and credentialing organizations for the business side of healthcare. These are professional organizations dedicated to helping healthcare professionals manage personal healthcare information in an effort to provide quality healthcare documentation to the public. Having a certification from AHIMA and AAPC would qualify healthcare professionals in the Philippines to work in various outsourced healthcare processes involving compliance and audits for medical providers and health plans in the US,” explains Myla Reyes, President of HIMAP.

Representing AHIMA will be Certification Services Senior Manager Jonathan Santos while the AAPC will be represented by Managing Director Dan Schwebach and their Vice President for ICD-10 Rhonda Buckholtz.

Ms. Reyes emphasizes the need to ensure that information managers and coders from the Philippines are up to date on these standards. She describes the partnership with AAPC and AHIMA as significant for the Philippines. Top-to-bottom knowledge would give them an edge in the highly competitive healthcare information management industry.

“Coding professionals need to maintain certain continuing credentials on a regular basis and this is where AAPC and AHIMA can provide the necessary education support,” Ms. Reyes says.

Other speakers who will be sharing their experiences at the HIMS Conference 2015 include Frost & Sullivan Senior Vice President for Healt hcare Rhenu Bhuller, Aon Hewitt Senior Consultant Vikrant Khana, eData Services CEO Fred Kumetz, Innoveo Managing Partner Marc Hermo, ADEC Innovations CTO and CIO Scott Darrow, Visaya KPO CEO Butch Valenzuela, Katheryne Gutierrez of Cognizant, among others.

Ms. Reyes says that the Philippine HIMS industry is progressively building its ecosystem that creates new lines of services as well as symbiotic relationships among players that will allow new sectors to thrive.

“Development efforts are focused on the healthcare professionals, middle management and best practice sharing for startup businesses. We have a strong partnership with Technical Education and Skills Development (TESDA) for the medical coding curriculum and training development, as well as with the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in replicating these skills through train the trainer program,” Ms. Reyes adds.

Aside from the discussions with the experts, the HIMAP will also be conducting a parallel activity at the 2015 HIMS Conference related to employment. The HIMAP Career Orientation program will be aimed at introducing HIMS industry employment trends to allied medical professionals, particularly nursing students and graduates, who are seeking to expand their career options and utilize their knowledge of medicine in the growing healthcare information management industry.

The official website of HIMS Conference 2015 is www.himsconference.org. For registration, sponsorship, and inquiries, interested companies and individuals may call event organizer

Media Focus at (632) 8998077, or 330-0237 or email info@himsconference.org.