Membership

The California Health Information Association (CHIA) represents the state’s health information professionals. This organization is an affiliate of the national association, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) http://www.AHIMA.org.

CHIA offers its members substantial savings through numerous services and benefits that include educational seminars, workshops, and the State Convention & Exhibit; and recruitment assistance through the CHIA eJobLine. CHIA publishes the peer-reviewed CHIA Journal. CHIA also publishes several publications and has put together a careful selection of professional books from other publishers and offers these to members at a special discount. Other benefits include membership in a CHIA Component Local Association (CLA), CHIA advocacy with state and national organizations and with our California legislature, e-mail notification of late breaking HIM news, and important HIM technical information. Professional development and networking opportunities at both the state and local levels are aplenty.

To learn more about CHIA membership and get an application, click here.

To qualify for membership in CHIA you must also be a member of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Information regarding AHIMA membership may be found at http://www.ahima.org/membership/. To aid CHIA in processing your application, please copy to CHIA documentation of your completed AHIMA application.

In late 2002 the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) changed the membership time-period structure from "calendar year" to each member's "anniversary date." This means that for new members, the anniversary date for the purpose of membership dues payment is based on the date that you joined AHIMA. To be consistent with the AHIMA membership year, the CHIA assessment time frame for members matches that of AHIMA.

Online Membership Application for AHIMA is located at https://secure.ahima.org/esignup/ 

Professional Development

Visit www.ahima.org/certification/ to obtain information regarding certification in health information management, coding, health care privacy and security and health data analytics.  AHIMA offers these credentials: RHIA, RHIT, CCS, CCS-P, CCA, CHPS and CHDA.

Information regarding approved coding programs www.ahima.org/careers/college_search/search.asp and HIM education programs at the masters, baccalaureate and associate degree levels.www.cahiim.org/directory/