News: Report shows benefit of CDI on inpatient revenue

Healthcare providers need to dedicate resources to increasing case-mix index, improving discharge disposition code accuracy, reducing readmission denials, and improving quality measures to reduce penalties, according to a report by HealthLeaders Media sponsored by Enjoin.

“If you are not appropriately documenting the complete picture of a patient, then it may have financial repercussions,” says ACDIS Advisory Board member James Fee, MD, CCS, CCDS, vice president of Enjoin, says in the report, “Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Clinical Documentation on your Revenue Stream.”

The report sites three main hurdles to improving clinical documentation:

1. The CDI team’s level of clinical knowledge
2. The physicians’ knowledge of the coding process
3. The coding system and infrastructure

Physician liaisons can help, the report states. “Organizations need a physician liaison—someone who can communicate from a clinical perspective but who is also knowledgeable and passionate about coding,” the report says. The second solution is daily audit reports.

Ultimately, the “whole idea is to build an infrastructure that enables you to capture information accurately at the point of care. The key part of that is the team mentality,” Fee says.