A Note from the CCDS Coordinator: What CEUs can I submit for my CCDS recertification?

by Penny Richards

ACDIS will accept as many CDI-related CEUs from other organizations as you wish to submit with one exception: If an event awards more than 10 CEUs, ACDIS will only accept 10. For example, if you attend an AHIMA training session and it awards 15 CEUs, we will accept 10 for your CCDS recertification. Other organizations include those such as the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and J.A. Thomas (JATA).

If you attend an AHIMA webinar or similar training that awards you one or two CEUs, you can submit them all and we will accept as many of those events as you submit. We will accept the entire 30 CEUs required for CCDS recertification from these types of activities if you choose. The key is that ACDIS will accept no more than 10 CEUs from any single event.

The same applies to CEUs earned from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), the American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC), Continuing Medical Education credits from the American Medical Association, and other agencies that provide CDI-related training.

ACDIS considers CDI-related training to be any type of education that covers concerns related to:

• CDI
• Inpatient coding
• Electronic health record or electronic query technology
• MS-DRG and CC/MCC assignment
• Healthcare reimbursement trends and developments
• Anatomy and physiology
• ICD-10-CM/PCS
• Disease processes

Documentation on the ACDIS website explains how CEUs from other agencies are credited for application to the CCDS credential:

• Item 6-Submit up to 10 CEUs for other single activities that provide CDI training and education, ICD‐10, clinical (disease or diagnosis), coding, documentation improvement activities, or diagnosis/pathophysiology education from other organizations, such as AHIMA, AAPC, ANCC, and CME credits.
• Item 7-Submit CEUs at a rate of one‐for‐one for individual training and education activities that are CDI training and education, ICD‐10-CM/PCS, clinical (disease or diagnosis), coding, documentation improvement activities, or diagnosis/pathophysiology education from other organizations, such as AHIMA, AAPC, ANCC, and CME credits.

We routinely accept training from companies such as 3M and Precyse as long as it is CDI-related training, again, up to a maximum of 10 credits for any single training event.

Some companies purchase ACDIS CEUs for their large programs (programs worth more than 10 CEUs), and in such situations ACDIS accepts all of these purchased CEUs. Such certificates will clearly indicate that the program awarded a specific number of CCDS CEUs. Check with your education provider to determine whether it applied to ACDIS for CEUs for the activity.

Click here to learn more about CCDS certification and as always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you may have at prichards@acdis.org.