This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
The CAHIMS Exam Preparation Course
and the CAHIMS exam are the result of
collaboration between the Life Science
Informatics Center at Bellevue College
and the Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Significant content found in the CAHIMS
Exam Preparation Course stems from the
Office of the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology. Creation
of the CAHIMS Exam Preparation Course
and the CAHIMS exam was made
possible through support from the National
Science Foundation (NSF).
Curriculum Team:
Margaret Schulte, DBA
Michèle Royer, PhD
Nathan Savage, MLIS
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Section 2 - Technology Environment
Lesson 2.1 - Health IT Applications
Assessment Questions Answer Key
Lecture 4
1. The lecture talked about a “misalignment of incentives” as it pertains to health
IT. Which of the following statements reflects this issue?
a. Doctors pay for IT, hospitals benefit
*b. Doctors pay for IT, payers benefit
c. Hospitals pay for IT, doctors benefit
d. Payers pay for IT, hospitals benefit
Answer: b. Doctors pay for IT, payers benefit
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/4
2. Which entity is the largest third party payer in the US healthcare system?
a. Blue Cross and Blue Shield
*b. The federal government
c. American Hospital Association
d. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)
Answer: b. The federal government
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/5
3. According to the lecture, which is one of the ways payors may “directly”
incentivize the need for health IT?
*a. Sponsor programs that reward physicians for achieving certain clinical
measures of excellence
b. Sponsor programs that reduce waiting times for patients seeking care
c. Encourage improvements in quality of care by including patients in decisions
that affect them
d. Encourage physicians to participate in health IT “steering committees”
Answer: a. Sponsor programs that reward physicians for achieving certain clinical
measures of excellence
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/7
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 1
4. According to the lecture, which of the following payor groups is considered
most generous?
a. Medicaid
b. Medicare
*c. Traditional insurers
d. HMOs
Answer: c. Traditional insurers
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/12
5. According to the lecture, in addition to directly and indirectly incentivizing
health IT among providers, payors can also influence health IT adoption by
*a. making available claims data from health information exchange.
b. lobbying Congress for more stringent health IT requirements for providers.
c. convening stakeholders to discuss data standards.
d. hiring nurses to be health IT liaisons to doctors.
Answer: a. Making available claims data from health information exchange
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/18, 19
6. According to the lecture, which entity would financially gain the most by the
adoption and use of EHRs and engagement in HIE?
a. Hospitals
b. Physicians
*c. Payors
d. Consumer-governed health care cooperatives
Answer: c. Payors
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/20
7. Which of the following is currently the most widely available source for a
cross-provider view of patient history in the U.S.?
a. Personal electronic health records
b. Smart Cards
*c. Payor claims data
d. Cloud-based proprietary healthcare data
Answer: c. Payor claims data
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 2
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/18
8. Which of the following typically pays providers the most for identical medical
services?
a. Medicare
*b. Private insurance companies
c. Medicaid
d. Managed care organizations
Answer: b. Private insurance companies
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/9-13
9. According to the lecture, which of the following explains the necessity for
linking HITECH Act incentives to “meaningful use”?
a. Healthcare organizations which are primarily paid through Medicaid have
lower clinical outcomes.
b. Healthcare organizations with mainly private insurance payors have quality
HIT but generally do not value interoperablility with government agencies.
*c. Simply having an EHR system does not ensure maximum benefits for
patients, physicians and payors.
d. HIT is the tool to provide equality of healthcare services for all citizens.
Answer: c. Simply having an EHR system does not ensure maximum benefits for
patients, physicians and payors.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 4/20
Lectures 1 & 2
10. Published reports from which of the following organization emphasized the
role of health IT in promoting patient safety?
a. HIPAA
b. CMS
*c. IOM
d. NLM
Answer: c. IOM
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/20
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 3
11. Which of the following was a NEW development in the 1990s?
a. Computer applications just started to be developed to support scientific
medical practice.
b. The professionalism of informatics specialists that began in the 1980s
decreased.
*c. The part of the Internet known as the World Wide Web was invented.
d. Voice recognition software began to be used routinely in healthcare.
Answer: c. The part of Internet known as the World Wide Web was invented.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/5
12. What is a likely future outcome from the clinical and translational science
awards?
*a. Systems for using EHR data for research will be developed.
b. Academic informatics professionals will be less needed.
c. Informatics research will focus on supporting basic science discoveries.
d. Informatics applications for translating scientific papers from other languages
into English will get more attention.
Answer: a. Systems for using EHR data for research will be developed.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/19
13. Which of the following occurred in 2004?
a. The HIPAA legislation was passed.
b. The HITECH legislation was passed.
c. The Institute of Medicine was formed.
*d. The ONC was established.
Answer: d. The ONC was established.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/22
14. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason that Chief Information
Officers began to report to the CEOs of hospitals in the 1990s?
a. There were major hospital reorganizations and no other administrator wanted
the responsibility for the information systems.
*b. The CIO’s role became much broader than it had been previously.
c. CIOs demanded that they get more recognition and wanted to report to the top
administrator.
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 4
d. CEOs began to take over many functions previously given to CFOs and this
was one of them.
Answer: b. The CIO’s role became much broader than it had been previously.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 2/5
15. Which of the following is the MOST likely explanation for increased clinical
computer use after 2000?
a. Computers were very cheap and more doctors bought them for their offices.
*b. Doctors were more comfortable using computers.
c. There were laws passed that mandated clinical computer use.
d. Research evidence was very strong that doctors could increase their income if
they used EHRs.
Answer: b. Doctors were more comfortable using computers.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 2/7, 21-25
16. Why was there increased interest in the 1990s in standardized clinical
vocabularies?
*a. There was more interest in using EHR data for research.
b. Good standardized vocabularies were not around earlier.
c. Doctors were buying electronic health records and they need to understand
what is in the EHR.
d. Doctors preferred to dictate using standardized terminologies.
Answer: a. There was more interest is using EHR data for research.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 2/14; 1/20
17. What was the view of the Leapfrog Group about health information
technology? The Leapfrog Group
a. thought health IT was too expensive.
b. wanted hospitals to use health IT to hold down healthcare costs.
*c. recommended health IT as a way to promote patient safety.
d. was concerned about the dangers of health IT.
Answer: c. recommended health IT as a way to promote patient safety.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/20
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 5
18. What has been an impact of the increased interest in quality improvement
over the last two decades?
a. Hospitals have rushed out to purchase new health IT software.
*b. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded health IT research.
c. Academic informaticians shifted their interests from administrative to clinical
computing.
d. Physicians protested that their quality was good enough and did not see any
need for improvement.
Answer: b. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded health IT
research.
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 2/13
19. Which method of reducing healthcare costs is demonstrated in the following
scenario?
After multiple visits to her primary care physician for concerns about the same
problem, Aunt Sally could stay in the hospital for only 2 days for a preapproved
procedure.
a. Minimal care system
*b. Managed care system
c. Fee –for –service system
d. Reasonable reduction system
Answer: b. Managed care system
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/10
20. The following scenario demonstrates which factor that influenced the positive
reception of Healthcare IT?
After accessing information on the internet, Helen, age 54, suspected her
symptoms were caused by a tumor on her pituitary gland. She researched
surgical methods of removal and chose surgeons and a hospital according to her
desired surgical procedure.
a. Efficiency
b. Personalized Healthcare
*c. Patient empowerment
d. Research
Answer: c. Patient empowerment
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 6
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/15
21. Which use of technology is indicated by the following scenario?
Cheryl, age 74, has mobility problems. She uses an electronic blood pressure
cuff and transmits, via a telephone connection, her daily blood pressures to a
nurse who reviews the blood pressure trends and notifies her if she need to see
her doctor. She avoids frequent trips to the physician’s office for simple blood
pressure monitoring.
*a. Telehealth
b. Telemedicine
c. Telecardiology
d. Bioinformatics
Answer: a. Telehealth
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/17
22. Which act of legislation represents the first realistic financial assistance for
advancement in technology for clinical and economic health?
a. The Human Genome Project
b. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
c. CCHT
*d. HITECH
Answer: d. HITECH
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 1/23; 2/26
23. Due to increased funding for health IT, healthcare organizations and
administrators are currently more motivated to use technology to do which of the
following?
a. Manage information
b. Survey patient satisfaction
*c. Improve quality and patient safety
d. Decrease cost
Answer: c. Improve quality and patient safety
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 2/17, 18
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 7
24. Which organization began in the 1920s?
a. AMIA
b. HIMSS
*c. AHIMA
d. NAHIT
e. JHITA
Answer: c. AHIMA
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/16
25. Which organization has always had a focus on clinical computing as early as
the 1970s?
*a. AMIA
b. HIMSS
c. AHIMA
d. NAHIT
e. JHITA
Answer: a. AMIA
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/5, 6, 7
26. Which of the following is NOT a common interest of AMIA, AHIMA and
HIMSS?
a. Electronic health IT workforce
b. Electronic medical records
c. Influencing health IT policies
*d. Making electronic hospital billing processes more efficient
Answer: d. Making electronic hospital billing processes more efficient
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/26
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 8
27. Which organization began with a focus on management engineering?
a. AMIA
*b. HIMSS
c. AHIMA
d. NAHIT
e. JHITA
Answer: b. HIMSS
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/13
28. Which of the following was the main source of information on U.S. informatics
during the late 60’s through the mid 80’s?
*a. SCAMC, Fall Symposium
b. The American Association of Medical Systems and Informatics, Spring
Congress
c. The International Medical Informatics Association, Annual World Congress
d. The American College of Medical Informatics, winter retreat
Answer: a. SCAMC, Fall Symposium
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/9
29. In what year did AMIA as an organization begin and select a U.S.
representative to the International Medical Informatics Association?
a. 1975
b. 1978
c. 1980
*d. 1988
Answer: d. 1988
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/12
30. Which type of professional was largely responsible for overseeing and
managing the use of computers in clinical and administrative systems in
hospitals during the 1990s?
*a. Chief Information Officer
b. Head Nurse
c. Chief Executive Officer
d. Health Information System Manager
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 9
Answer: a. Chief Information Officer
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/15
31. According to the lecture, which of the following was a driving force for coding
standardization and standardized terminology in the 1980s?
a. HIPAA regulations
b. Increased integration of computer systems
*c. DRGs
d. Palm pilots
Answer: c. DRGs
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/18
32. Which of the following describes a new area of emphasis for the American
Health Information Management Association in the 1990s?
a. Advocating policy for medical records
b. Overseeing hospital information
c. Ensuring the quality of medical record data
*d. Developing the HIT workforce
Answer: d. Developing the HIT workforce
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/17-20
33. According to the lecture which of the following best describes AHIMA’s
original constituency?
a. An engineer developing telemedicine devices
b. A physician desiring to apply technology to cancer research
*c. A health information manager seeking an administrative role
d. A chief operating officer seeking to integrate healthcare organizations IT
systems
Answer: c. A health information manager designing PHRs
Lecture(s)/Slide(s): 7/17
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological Education Grant 1003223
Page 10