What happens when your CDI program is struggling and can’t seem to right itself? Rather than succumbing to the trials and disbanding the department entirely, many CDI programs hit the restart button to remake their program better than when it started. In fact, 26% of respondents to...Read More »
Q:We’ve encountered audit takebacks and denials from a certain payer who removed codes and procedures that result in lower DRGs. Do you have any advice for fighting or preventing these types of denials?Read More »
by Trey La Charité, MD, FACP, SFHM, CCS, CCDS
Do you want to see a doctor explode? Just ask about the facility’s electronic health record (EHR) system. I have never heard a practicing clinician say, “I love the EHR.” Most clinicians see the EHR as a bureaucrat-imposed quagmire...Read More »
For many, outpatient CDI is still a new frontier. An outpatient CDI effort might be kicked off by success on the inpatient side and some preliminary wins with outpatient record reviews for ambulatory or emergency services. Programs with full-blown CDI efforts into system-owned physician...Read More »
"I remember talking to some of the folks who work in CDI at conferences, and when I would ask them about psych units, none of them had CDI working on those units at all,” says Suzanne Dennis, CTRS, CCDS, director of clinical services/documentation specialist at Acadia Healthcare...Read More »
By Sharme Brodie, RN, CCDS
So, the first AHA Coding Clinic for 2018 is out, and I must admit, I was surprised at its length. At only 26 pages, it is one of the shorter editions of late. Some of the questions covered within its few pages, however, were ones I often discuss...Read More »
Scope creep is “really the whole sentiment that since we’re already in the record, we can do more and more,” says Lara Faustino, RN, BSN, CCDS, a CDI specialist at Boston Medical Center. “It happened gradually for us.”
As CDI programs mature, they move away from the easy-...Read More »
What’s a CDI specialist to do when queries go answered? What if a physician has a backlog of unanswered queries from three weeks prior? Or what if a physician patently refuses to answer queries and says “I don’t have time” or “it’s all about the money”?