Greetings, and welcome to our special preview issue for the 81st Annual Conference and Exhibit of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), which will take place Oct. 4-8, in Grapevine, Texas (view the full conference brochure). It's an exciting time in health IT, and no less so for health information management than any other segment of the industry. With the rest of the world in an economic funk, health IT is booming, thanks in no small part to the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February.

But there's so much more going on in healthcare IT. The stimulus requires important changes to HIPAA privacy and security rules. "This year, we're seeing a lot more interest in HIPAA," says Lynette Czarkowski, AHIMA senior vice president for HIM products and services. Of particular interest to the AHIMA crowd is the coming transition to ANSI X12 5010 standards for HIPAA transactions and the related switch to ICD-10. And, oh yeah, there's this little thing called healthcare reform that has the nation's attention right now.

Still, healthcare organizations are coping with leaner staffs, and pared-down travel budgets are having an effect on AHIMA. Many healthcare meetings have seen 15 to 20 percent lower registration rates this year, and AHIMA is not immune. The association has published a letter helping potential registrants justify the expense (.doc), and is touting the fact that the 81st annual meeting is in a self-contained location, the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, adjacent to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. (Anyone who's ever taken a taxi between D/FW and downtown Dallas knows what a long, expensive ride that can be.)

"It's the first time AHIMA has been in a resort setting instead of a downtown convention center," says Czarkowski.

And then there's the conference itself, featuring more than 60 educational sessions, 18 different practice tracks, a privacy institute, a post-conference workshop about ARRA and a two-day preconference workshop on a perennial concern, clinical coding. Even with the ICD-10 transition coming in October 2013, "ICD-9 is still really important for people to keep their eye on," Czarkowski tells FierceHealthIT. The ARRA workshop will include significant content on workforce development.

"We're not holding back in terms of planning the event," Czarkowski says. And FierceHealthIT won't hold back in terms of coverage. Our team will be at the show, reporting, tweeting and blogging from the trenches. - Neil