RHIA study guide
RHIA · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) is an AHIMA credential for professionals who manage health information and the people, systems, and operational units that depend on it. AHIMA describes RHIAs as a critical link between care providers, payers, and patients, with comprehensive knowledge of the medical, administrative, ethical, and legal requirements and standards related to healthcare delivery and the privacy of protected patient information. The RHIA study guide has 5 sections and about 1,639 words.
01Information Governance: Framework, Records, and Retention
Information governance (IG) is the enterprise-wide accountability framework for how information is created, captured, accessed, used, shared, retained, and destroyed. On the RHIA exam, IG is never just an IT project or a synonym for HIM operations: it is led by a multidisciplinary steering committee with an executive sponsor, a charter, policies, and defined metrics.
349 words, about 2 min02Compliance with Uses and Disclosures of PHI
The Privacy Rule permits use and disclosure for treatment, payment, and health care operations (TPO), and for public-policy purposes such as public health reporting, abuse/neglect reporting, law enforcement with legal process, organ donation, judicial and administrative proceedings, and research with IRB waiver or authorization. Everything else requires a valid authorization.
387 words, about 2 min03Data Analytics and Informatics: From Data Quality to Prediction
The DIKW hierarchy runs data (raw) to information (organized) to knowledge (interpreted) to wisdom (applied). Data quality dimensions are accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, validity, and uniqueness.
314 words, about 2 min04Revenue Management: The Cycle, Payment Models, and KPIs
Front end: scheduling, registration, eligibility/benefits verification, prior authorization, financial counseling. Mid cycle: charge capture, charge description master (CDM) maintenance, coding, clinical documentation integrity (CDI), and claim edits.
311 words, about 2 min05Management and Leadership: Structure, Staffing, and Change
Managers plan, organize, staff, direct, and control; leaders set vision and influence change. Span of control is the number of direct reports; wide spans flatten the organization.
278 words, about 1 min