Note from the Certification Coordinator: Does your employer care when you recertify your CCDS?

By Penny Richards

In the last few weeks I’ve handled rush recertifications for people who waited until their due dates to submit their paperwork.

In two cases, employers threatened to suspend people who did not recertify by their due date.

Do you know what your employer’s policy is?

ACDIS gives you a 45-day grace period and we don’t impose a financial penalty until you are six months overdue. We even go so far as to permit recertification up to 364 days after your due date. Our policy is quite lenient. Your employer may not be as forgiving.

Frankly, that’s your employer’s right. Your certification is issued on the day you passed the exam. Under the rules, it is not valid on the day after your two-year exam date anniversary.

If you passed the exam two years ago today, on June 27, 2017, technically you will no longer be certified tomorrow, June 28, 2019, if you haven’t recertified.

We have more than 4,500 CCDS holders. That means we recertify up to 2,250 people a year or about 44 a week. And that’s just for the Certified Clinical Documentation Specialist credential. We recently launched the CCDS Outpatient credential as well. The subtext here is that while we do send email reminders regarding your recertification it is up to you to ensure that the email address we have on file for you is accurate. It is up to you to mark your calendars regarding your recertification date. It is up to you to be continually learning and obtaining your continuing education credits and saving them in a easily accessible place.

You may submit your recertification paperwork up to 60 days before it is due. That is more than enough time for us to process your application and payment, for your payment to clear through your finance department, and for us to get your confirmation letter out to you. Count on it taking two weeks.

If you schedule and plan properly, we’ll get you processed in enough time to satisfy your employer’s right to impose their own penalty on you for failing to recertify on time.

Over the last few days I updated the CCDS database to change the status of 223 CCDS holders to expired for failing to recertify within a year of their due date. I hope you weren’t one of them.

Need to know your recertification due date? Check here.

Editor’s note: Richards is the certification coordinator for ACDIS. Contact her at prichards@acdis.org.