Our Role
The AHA Central Office...
- Represents and serves AHA members at the national level by promoting uniformity of health care data by collaborating on the establishment of coding and classification standards and guidelines across health care settings.
- Identifies and resolves coding and classification needs of members, provides expert advice by serving as the clearinghouse for the dissemination of coding information to members and other users of clinical data.
- Represents AHA institutional members needs by recommending revisions to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) that ensure that the classification remains current, viable and robust.
- Provides educational coding products so that providers have well-trained, well-informed coders to allow appropriate capture of information.
- Is involved in endeavors that rely on the use and interpretation of data including development of standards, implementation, and enforcement not only in the inpatient and outpatient setting but home care and rehabilitation as well because the classification system is at the core of the information infrastructure.