HIM Ethics Scenarios
1. HIM receives a call from a friend who asks whether or not she should consult with Dr. Doe who is on the staff of the hospital. HIM replies, “Heavens no, he doesn’t have many cases at the hospital, and his patients have a lot of complications after their surgery. You’d better go to Dr. Roe, he’s wonderful.
2. At her exercise class, one of the members of the class expresses sympathy for an absent member who, she reports, has recently been hospitalized because of acute appendicitis. HIM remarks, “It wasn’t appendicitis at all, but of course, I can’t tell you what it was because that wouldn’t be ethical.”
3. An inexperienced person has been employed to manage the health information department at a small neighboring clinic. This person asks HIM for advice. HIM, believing that he has more than enough to do taking care of his own work, tells this person that he cannot help her.
4. A bill is returned from the fiscal intermediary with a letter requesting copies of records to justify the diagnosis and treatment. The code numbers that appear on the bill are different from those on the patient’s record. Upon checking, HIM finds that the codes on the bill put the case into a higher paying DRG and the documentation in the patient record does not justify the new codes. HIM decides to send portions of the record and not change the codes to see if the FI catches the discrepancy
For each of the three situations above answer the questions below based on the AHIMA Code of Ethics:
1. Determine if the health information management (HIM) professional acted ethically or unethically.
2. If unethically, describe why the action was unethical.
3. Describe how t
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