CDI Strategies - Volume 9, Issue 5

News: OIG sites two San Antonio facilities for Kwashiorkor errors

March 5, 2015
News, Quality & Regulatory

For calendar years (CYs) 2010 and 2011, Medicare paid hospitals $711 million for claims that included a diagnosis code for Kwashiorkor, a form of severe protein malnutrition typically found in third-world countries that is extremely rare in the United States.Read More »
CDI Journal - Volume 9, Issue 5

In the News: CCDS certification set to receive an ICD-10 update

September 1, 2015
News

There are a lot of changes coming with ICD-10—including an update to the exam for the Certified Clinical Documentation Specialist (CCDS) credential. Beginning in mid-January 2016, the exam will include ICD-10-related questions.Read More »
CDI Journal - Volume 9, Issue 5

Meet a member: Foreign Medical Grad finds CDI home in California

September 1, 2015
Education

Romerl “Cris” Gumayagay, CCDS, CCS, CDIP, knows a thing or two about having passion for CDI. The foreign medical graduate (FMG) has been involved in CDI for more than five years and holds a CDI position at the University of Southern California, Keck Medicine, in Los Angeles.Read More »
CDI Journal - Volume 9, Issue 5

Ask ACDIS: Escalation policies and clinical validation queries

September 1, 2015
Ask ACDIS

Q: What are other facilities doing to avoid denials on the back end and code the chart accurately the first time with a clinically supported diagnosis?

A: You bring up an excellent point. If the clinical indicators do not seem to support the diagnosis, it is the responsibility of the CDI/...Read More »
CDI Strategies - Volume 9, Issue 5

Q&A: What are the rules for using information from ambulance forms or trip tickets?

March 5, 2015
Ask ACDIS

Q: Can CDI programs use information on ambulance forms or trip tickets to abstract from if the information is pulled into or reiterated in the ED or history and physical (H&P) documentation? Our staff doesn’t want to miss criteria that would diminish our ability to substantiate the...Read More »
CDI Journal - Volume 9, Issue 5

Clinically Speaking: Adding venous thromboembolism to the CDI checklist

September 1, 2015
Clinical & Coding

by Linda Renee Brown, RN, MA, CCDS, CCS, CDIP

The annual incidence of an initial venous thromboembolism (VTE) event, either a pulmonary embolus (PE) or a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), is approximately 0.1% in the United States, with the highest incidence among the elderly and a...Read More »
CDI Journal - Volume 9, Issue 5

Coding Clinic for CDI: Defining root operations

September 1, 2015
Clinical & Coding

by Sharme Brodie, RN, CCDS

Many of the questions and answers supplied in AHA Coding Clinic for ICD-10-CM/PCS, Second Quarter
2015, surrounded the use of the correct root operation. Per ICD-10-PCS Official Guideline for Coding and
Reporting, “[i]t is the coder...Read More »
CDI Journal - Volume 9, Issue 5

Outpatient Efforts: One system's efforts to address physician practice documentation improvement needs

September 1, 2015
CDI Expansion

Basically, HCCs predict an individual beneficiary’s healthcare expenditures relative to the average  beneficiary. CMS uses the scores to adjust payments based on the health status and demographic characteristics of a beneficiary.Read More »

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