AHIMA VLab^® is the virtual practice environment for health information education. Explore healthcare technology and build your knowledge with integrated activities.

One platform, hundreds of patient cases, and unlimited opportunities to strengthen your career prospects. AHIMA VLab^® is where future healthcare leaders thrive.

Terms of Use

AHIMA VLab® use is specifically limited to formal short-term HIM education in a college or university recognized and accredited by the U.S. Department of Education or its Regional Accreditors. Any use by an institution which does not fit these criteria is prohibited.

Users of AHIMA VLab® are limited to persons actively enrolled under such programs. Use of AHIMA VLab® by enrollees is limited to their academic work only. Login credentials may not be shared. 

AHIMA VLab® is strictly prohibited from use by a commercial enterprise, which is not otherwise permitted above, for any commercial purpose, or for any public display (commercial or non-commercial).

Users acknowledge that all rights (including without limitation, copyrights, patents and trade secrets) in AHIMA VLab® are the sole and exclusive property of the American Health Information Management Association or its licensors. By using this service, you do not become the owner of any licensed rights, but you do have a limited license to use it in accordance with the provisions of this End User Terms of Use.

AHIMA reserves the right to discontinue the subscription of users who demonstrate unacceptable use of AHIMA VLab®, such as sharing of login credentials, cheating, etc.

Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

Learn to keep health information human.

We’re purposeful about advancing health information education through the AHIMA VLab^® experiential learning approach. With AHIMA VLab® practice meets theory. You’ll see the patient in front of the data and learn first-hand how the accuracy, protection, and accessibility of health information impacts every step of the patient journey. AHIMA VLab® gives you access to hundreds of authentic and realistic patient cases.

AHIMA VLab® is continuously evolving after more than a decade of serving our community. We remain committed to our mission of empowering you to impact health, as we uncover opportunities that accelerate learning and create insightful learning experiences.

By working with real applications used in healthcare within a virtual environment, you’ll:

• Develop a full understanding of the uniquely human characteristics of health information and discover why its proper management requires a diverse range of expertise.
• Learn to adapt to a space that is in constant evolution and become familiar with the latest technology.
• Become a leader in health information and help drive health innovation.

Begin or renew your academic program’s subscription using the AHIMA VLab® Subscription form →

Please see page 5 of the AHIMA VLab® Brochure.

AHIMA VLab® Health Information Administrator (HIA) Package: Includes every application and resource provided on the former VLab Full Access version; enrollment codes for this package are $195 each.

AHIMA VLab® HIA & MediRegs Coding Center for Students Bundle: Includes every application and resource in the AHIMA VLab® HIA package, plus the MediRegs Coding Center for Students (an online medical coding, billing and reimbursement reference tool); enrollment codes for this bundle are $314 each.

AHIMA VLab® HIA & Ciox Coding Gym Bundle: Includes every application and resource in the AHIMA VLab® HIA package, plus the Ciox HealthSource Gym (for medical coding practice); enrollment codes for this bundle are $314 each.

AHIMA VLab® HIA & MediRegs Coding Center for Students & Ciox Coding Gym Bundle: Includes every application and resource in the AHIMA VLab® HIA package, plus the MediRegs Coding Center for Students (an online medical coding, billing and reimbursement reference tool) and the Ciox HealthSource Gym (for medical coding practice); enrollment codes for this bundle are $433 each.

AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder Package: Includes the three encoders (Nuance Clintegrity, 3M and Find-A-Code) as well as the Patient Cases; enrollment codes for this package are $75 each.

AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder & MediRegs Coding Center for Students Bundle: Includes every application and resource in the AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder package, plus the MediRegs Coding Center for Students (an online medical coding, billing and reimbursement reference tool); enrollment codes for this bundle are $214 each.

AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder & Ciox Coding Gym Bundle: Includes every application and resource in the AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder package, plus the Ciox HealthSource Gym (for medical coding practice); enrollment codes for this bundle are $214 each.

AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder & MediRegs Coding Center for Students & Ciox Coding Gym Bundle: Includes every application and resource in the AHIMA VLab® Medical Coder package, plus the MediRegs Coding Center for Students (an online medical coding, billing and reimbursement reference tool) plus the Ciox HealthSource Gym (for medical coding practice); enrollment codes for this bundle are $353 each.

Yes – Educators only can submit a Request a Free Trial form and receive a 14-day free trial.

Submit the request via AHIMA VLab® support.

On the AHIMA VLab® homepage, refer to the Announcements section on the right-hand side of the page. Scroll down to see additional Announcements.

Two ways:

1. via your academic program’s initial or renewal subscription using the AHIMA VLab® Subscription form →
2. If your academic program is currently subscribed, complete and email the AHIMA VLab® Enrollment Code Order form →. Once redeemed, each enrollment code provides access to AHIMA VLab®. If your bookstore will be purchasing the codes to resell to students, they will also use this form to order.

Ask your AHIMA VLab® Primary Contact to submit the request via email to AHIMA VLab® support.

Please ask students to Go to the AHIMA Store →. Once the online purchase is completed, access is automatically provided to AHIMA VLab® and can be accessed via the AHIMA Learning Center page.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems

MEDITECH Expanse

In Partnership with

MEDITECH Expanse recently replaced the MEDITECH EHR in the AHIMA VLab® for added value to your academic program. As the healthcare paradigm continues its shift from volume-based to value-based care, MEDITECH Expanse helps you make the transition. See the AHIMA VLab® FAQ: MEDITECH Expanse to learn more about the upgrade.

DrChrono Outpatient Physician Office Practice Management System

An award-winning, cloud-based physician practice management system, giving students experience in many different HIM activities, including building clinical document templates, registering new patients, editing patient data, scheduling patient appointments, and generating bills, among others.

This EHR system includes pre-built patient cases and also allows students to register and build their own cases. Explores:

• Patient scheduling
• DrChrono Dashboard
• Basic EHR navigation
• Clinical documentation tools and processes (order entry and narrative and structured documentation tools)
• Clinical decision support tools (alerts and reminders)
• Billing

Encoders

*3M Coding and Reimbursement System

3M’s logic-based encoder software provides students with access to ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codebooks, CPT and HCPCS codebooks, reimbursement groupers, and extensive coding and general references (a medical dictionary, a drug reference guide, and anatomy illustrations). Students gain familiarity with encoder software tools and the resources they provide.

The 3M package includes:

• Encoder for coding practice
• DRG grouper for reimbursement concepts
• Extensive coding references

*Find-A-Code

Find-A-Code is an online database of medical billing codes and information. Going far beyond the free trial version of Find-A-Code, AHIMA VLab® features several learning activities for students to get experience assigning diagnosis and procedure codes.

By completing the AHIMA VLab® learning activities, students quickly discover that rather than searching through 10 or more books, Find-A-Code has combined the information into one simple search. Find-A-Code has many tools to assist students in their efforts to accurately assign diagnosis and procedure codes. Students particularly enjoy completing the activity in which they use the Code-A-Note computer assisted coding (CAC) tool.

*Nuance Clintegrity™ Facility and Physician Coding, Compliance and Abstracting

This knowledge-based encoder software suite includes ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codebooks, CPT and HCPCS codebooks, and reimbursement groupers. Students can access extensive coding and general references, such as a medical dictionary, a drug reference guide, and anatomy illustrations, and can gain familiarity with encoder software tools and the resources they provide.

The package includes:

• Encoder for facility and physician coding practice
• Coding references
• Abstracting and compliance software
• Coded data set

Medical Coding Practice and Reference Tools

CIOX HealthSource Gym

Bundle the CIOX HealthSource Gym with other AHIMA VLab® applications as an add-on subscription to the industry's only experiential coding training and assessment solution. CIOX HealthSource Gym is a web-based application powered by clinical content presented in an experiential format that:

• Enables organizations to efficiently and reliably assess and train coders and CDI professionals of all skill levels efficiently and reliably across all phases of the coding continuum.
• Improves coding skills—provides data-rich training and practice scenarios with immediate feedback.
• Enhances the coding acumen of clinical documentation integrity (CDI) professionals.
• Allows users to learn by doing—a proven methodology for increasing retention.

Watch the CIOX HealthSource Gym demo

MediRegs Coding Center for Students

AHIMA partnered with Wolters Kluwer to offer MediRegs Coding Center for Students as an add-on subscription to the AHIMA VLab® learning experience. The MediRegs Coding Center for Students is an online reference for learning to code. Students can access this online reference, along with other applications used in practice.

MediRegs Coding Center for Students features:

• Simple search functionality makes it easy to search across multiple code sets by code, description, or key terms for verification of coding, diagnosis/procedure codes, and coverage from one location.
• E-Code Sets allow for searching by code, description, or common terms, including integration with the explorer tool to provide complete code set content for HCPCS, CPT®, ICD-9-CM, and ICD-10.
• A CMS glossary, MLN Matters, Job Aids, and fee schedule information further expand the list of reference material.
• The National Correct Coding Initiatives (NCCI) code pair checking tool, LCD/NCD Search tool, and MS-DRG grouper makes it easy to learn complex coding rules for clean claim submissions.
• Customizable daily and weekly alerts, stored search alerts, and personal bookmark folders provide instant access to necessary information.

Please see page 3 of the AHIMA VLab® Brochure.

Please refer to the AHIMA VLab® Activities – Estimated Completion Times.

Within the weekly modules of your course syllabi. Add the title of the AHIMA VLab® activity/assessment and the due date into the “correct week” of your syllabus; then add an assignment page into your local campus LMS – and that’s it! Students can upload their graded scoresheet from each assessment directly into your local campus LMS.

Refer students to the video 04-Navigating To and Completing Your Assigned Activity.

Yes. Every AHIMA VLab® activity is linked to one or more of the prevailing academic curricula competencies. The Competency Maps are available under Instructors Resources.

Instructors only have access to the Instructors Resources content tile located directly on the AHIMA VLab® homepage!

Contact our technical support team M-F 7:00am-7:00pm Central (excluding major US national holidays) at Email: academyhelp@ahima.org