CDI

Revenue Cycle Management is Top Software Investment Priority for Providers

By Jay Asser for Health Leaders Coming off the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, providers are doubling down on software investments and prioritizing revenue cycle management to alleviate macroeconomic challenges, according to a report from Bain & Company and KLAS. The research finds that 45% of providers accelerated software investment over the past year, with 10% pulling…

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Internal Audits Help Combat Payer Risk

By Dawn Crump, MA, CHC, SSBB for For the Record Wonder Woman has a golden lasso. Captain America has an impenetrable shield. Thor has a lightning hammer. Just as these magical tools bolster superheroes’ defenses, insights gleaned from internal audits are your organization’s superpower to prevent revenue recoupment and drive down risk. Audits identify revenue…

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Social determinants of health and medical coding: What to know

Andeis Robezienks for AMA Recognition of the impact that social determinants of health (SDOH) have on patients’ outcomes is growing, as is the desire to incorporate SDOH factors into patient-care plans. But awareness of an existing data infrastructure that could help physician practices do so is limited. “The clinical care we provide only accounts for…

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With 25×5 initiative, AMIA sets sights on tackling clinical documentation burden

By Mike Miliard for Healthcare IT News The American Medical Informatics Association this week announced next steps for AMIA 25×5, its multi-stakeholder effort to alleviate documentation burden for U.S. clinicians. WHY IT MATTERS Funded by the National Library of Medicine, the 25×5 Symposium to Reduce Documentation Burden on U.S. Clinicians by 75% by 2025 was…

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Journal excerpt: Familiarizing yourself with coding guidelines

From the ACDIS CDI Blog Because every chart is coded before being sent to payers, it’s important that CDI specialists have a working knowledge of code sets and coding rules. The inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final ruling, traditionally updated annually, has been changed to update twice a year on April 1 and October 1 beginning…

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HIM Challenges: The Future Looks Bright for Coders

By Angela Lima, BS, CCS, CDIP, CIC, COC for For the Record Libman Education’s survey found that 87% of respondents plan to increase their coding expertise. As you read this article, you’re probably sitting in your home office, drinking your third (or fourth) cup of coffee, and perhaps even wearing your favorite pair of slippers. That’s…

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White Paper Details Technology’s Impact on CDI

From For the Record AHIMA and the Association of Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialists (ACDIS) released a new white paper that examines how rapid advancement in health care technology is driving changes to the practice of clinical documentation integrity (CDI). CDI is critical to the usability of medical data and ongoing efforts to improve patient care. New technologies, such as artificial…

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Book excerpt: A brief history of query practice briefs

By Karen Newhouser, RN, BSN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CCS, CDIP, CCM from the ACDIS CDI Blog As the CDI and coding professions continue to evolve, query guidance methods have changed along with them. The first industry standard brief, “Developing a Physician Query Process,” published by AHIMA in 2001, set the foundation for the compliant query practice.…

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How hospitals can use Z codes to track social determinants of health

Georgina Gonzalez for Becker’s Hospital Review Z codes, which are ICD-10-CM codes used to identify non-medical factors that may affect a patient’s health status, are a useful way to track social determinants of health and capture standardized data for Medicare beneficiaries. However, they are underused, with Z codes reported from only 1.59 percent of beneficiaries…

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