Note from the Associate Editorial Director: What’s your work worth?

By Melissa Varnavas

The annual CDI Salary Survey serves as a benchmark, a stake in the ground, that illustrates the average earnings of those working in the field. ACDIS has been publishing its findings since its inception in 2008, helping CDI professionals understand what their work is worth according to industry standards.

In the earliest days of the profession, CDI specialists sometimes took a pay cut in favor of less physically taxing work and more typical, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., working hours. Ten years ago, a sizeable portion of CDI professionals earned less than $60,000.

According to Glassdoor.com, the national average salary for bedside nurses today is nearly $77,000. According to ziprecruiter.com, the average national salary for an inpatient coding professional today reaches as high as $81,000, depending on the location.

Last year’s CDI Salary Survey, showed this profession—which requires both coding and clinical experience—in line with these professions and, in some cases, surpassing those salaries. Last year, some 20% said they earned $70,000-$79,999 and 19% said they earned $80,000-$89,999. Those earning $100,000-$109,999 increased to 11% last year.

That puts those working in CDI in a competitive salary range with, if not at a potential advantage over, its cohort professions.

Which is great. But, what career options exist from there? The annual CDI Salary Survey attempts to identify these areas as well.

The days of CDI programs’ infancy have passed. For the most part, gone are the days where hospital administrations charged single individuals to research, implement, and run CDI efforts. And, while CDI remains a role relatively removed from the physical demands of bedside nursing, and a challenging record review opportunity for inpatient coding professionals, it’s no longer a place from which staff simply review the medical record, file their queries, and wait for retirement.

Since those early years, CDI programs began to have managers and directors of their own. They now have opportunities for CDI specialists to become preceptors, mentors, and program leads with additional responsibilities for training new staff, tracking program productivity measures. There’s now roles for CDI auditors and CDI educators with duties that include assisting in denials management, assessing CDI program data for improvement opportunities, and providing education for physicians, coding professionals, and CDI staff on improvement targets.

We hear about these growth opportunities anecdotally through the stories of ACDIS members, but the annual CDI Salary Survey provides concrete, year-over-year, data which CDI teams can investigate further to identify reasonable career opportunities to keep programs in line with industry practices and keep staff invested in ongoing CDI efforts.

Already nearly 600 CDI-related professionals have participated in the 2018 ACDIS Salary Survey. Please add your voice to this important industry asset and we’ll take the next steps into the future of this amazing CDI career together. Survey results will be released in January 2019.

Editor’s note: Varnavas is the associate editorial director at ACDIS. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org.