CDI

Feeling the Burn: Confessions of a Formerly Burned Out Coder

By Kristi Pollard, RHIT, CCS, CPC, CIRCC, AHIMA-Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer for ICD10 Monitor Ten strategies for avoiding burnout are provided by the author. On any given day, if you walked into my home office, you might think you were in a spa. The walls are painted a soothing aqua color (at least, I think it’s soothing),…

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In Outpatient CDI, Timing is Everything

Article by Susan Richards Morgan, CCS, CPHQ, CPC, CDEO, CRC, CPMA, CEMC, CPC-I. This article was originally published on the A Journal of AHIMA Blog on April 25, 2018 and is republished here with permission. Currently, most clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs have been developed inside hospitals with an inpatient focus. Medicare generally expects an inpatient admission to need two…

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Auditing Issues Uncovered in Physician Documentation: Part I

By Terry Fletcher BS, CPC, CCC, CEMC, CCS, CCS-P, CMC, CMCSC, CMCS, ACS-CA, SCP-CA for ICD10 Monitor Physician documentation issues during an audit go beyond CDI. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a four-part series that examines physician documentation issues as seen by an auditor. One of the services I offer, aside from coding…

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Proper Documentation is Critical to Our Modern Healthcare System

Article by Allen Frady, RN, BSN, CCS, CCDS, CRC. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA on March 29, 2018 and is republished here with permission. Is documentation improvement and proper use of ICD-10-CM critical to the nation’s healthcare debate? I say definitively yes, in every way. The bulk of the information coming from…

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Why CDI Often Times Goes off the Rails

By Glenn Krauss, RHIA, BBA, CCS, CCS-P, CPUR, CCDS, C-CDI, PCS, FCS, C-CDAM for ICD10 Monitor  Moving beyond CDI to optimize reimbursement requires returning to an optimal and sustainable level of achievable excellence. A well-guided, thought-out, directed mission is paramount to driving and ensuring success in any professional role – and this particularly holds true…

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Improving Risk Adjustment through Inpatient HCC Capture

By Michelle M. Wieczorek RN RHIT CPHQ for ICD10 Monitor In this article, the author examines the implications for the capture of Hierarchical Condition Codes (HCCs) in the inpatient setting. By now, most clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs have an appreciation for the use of cases reflecting how Hierarchical Condition Codes (HCCs) impact upon quality…

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How 2018 Impacts ICD-10-CM Cardiology Diagnosis Coding

By Terry Fletcher BS, CPC, CCC, CEMC, CCS, CCS-P, CMC, CMCSC, CMCS, ACS-CA, SCP-CA for ICD10 Monitor  For cardiology, the focus of ICD-10 is generally on increased specificity and documenting the downstream effects of the patient’s condition. Acute myocardial infarction, or what is more commonly known as AMI, had a definition change when the nation’s healthcare system…

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