Conference Update: Medical necessity reviews
The 2016 ACDIS conference takes place next month on May 23-26, in Atlanta. The ACDIS office is already buzzing with excitement as enter the final weeks of preparation. There is still plenty of time to sign up for the event. Remember, register a team of four and the fifth person attends for free! Call our customer service team for assistance 877-727-1728.
To view the full agenda and details, download the conference brochure. As you start to plan your itinerary, we’re we are interviewing a handful of speakers to give you a feel for the sessions. This week, we spoke with Megan Buyrn, BSN, RN, CCDS; Pence Livingston, BSN, RN; and MaryKate Rentschler, MBA, BSN, RN, who will present, “Medical Necessity Reviews: CDI impact on provider documentation.”
Q: Tell me a little but about the process that your facility took to improve documentation of medical necessity.
Buyrn: Our emergency room providers decide the level of care at our facility, so we started with their documentation. We first conducted baseline audits, shared the results with the providers, and implemented other interventions, such as form revisions and tip cards. We then conducted continual follow-up audits with regular feedback and results for a two-year period. We expanded this process to include adult medicine, psychiatric, and pediatric inpatient areas.
Q: What are three things attendees can expect from your session?
Rentschler: First, we’ll help them identify opportunities to improve attending documentation of medical necessity for observation and inpatient hospitalization in order to decrease denial vulnerabilities. We will discuss how to develop a process for retrospective audits of observation, inpatient, and short stay ICU admissions. Finally, we will outline strategies to help improve physician compliance and hospital system processes through educational tools and strategic distribution of audit results.
Q: Who should attend your presentation and why?
Livingston: CDI specialists, physician advisors, utilization review staff, or anyone interested in medical necessity documentation for inpatient stays.
Q: What do you think is the most important quality for a CDI professional to have?
Buyrn: Here at Denver Health, flexibility is so very important. The scope of our skillset is broad and constantly shifting with the changing needs of the hospital and the healthcare rules and regulations. CDI specialists have to be open to learning new skills and finding ways to apply their newfound knowledge and educate others.
Q: What are you most looking forward to about this year’s conference? What is your favorite part of the conference?
Rentschler: We look forward to hearing how other programs are succeeding, including innovative ways that CDI is affecting hospital processes.