Every year during the third week of September, ACDIS celebrates CDI Week. This year’s festivities took place September 17–22 with the theme of “The Wild West: New Frontiers in CDI.” This year’s theme, chosen by the ACDIS members through a poll, aimed to represent the many ways the CDI profession...Read More »
Jennifer Cooper, MHIIM, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, works at Hunt Regional Medical Center in Greenville, Texas. She is a leader of the Texas ACDIS Chapter which is in the re-building stages.Read More »
By Tamara A. Hicks, RN, BSN, MHA, CCS, CCDS, ACM-RN
The old adage, “the best defense is a good offense,” comes to mind when I think about the role of CDI in audit defense. Our job is to improve documentation. A number of positive outcomes result from clinical documentation work...Read More »
Trey La Charité, MD, FACP, SFHM, CCS, CCDS
Appeal writing, like most things in a hospital, is a learned skill. Keeping things simple, both in terms of the arguments constructed and the language used in the letters themselves, will prevent you from creating horrific monstrosities...Read More »
By Janie L. Brown, RN
Denied. It’s a word that no one wants to hear in any context. In healthcare, it’s a heavily weighted word. It means that, in spite of our best efforts to provide excellent care to our patients and to document that care appropriately, we are not receiving...Read More »
Because of payers’ propensity for denials, facilities need to have a process in place for managing denials’ root causes on the front end and appealing them on the back end. This, however, can involve a lot of hard work and headaches.
Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the joint Tennessee Health Information Management Association/Tennessee ACDIS local chapter meeting. The Tennessee Hospital Association kindly hosted the all-day event at their wonderful facility in Brentwood. The theme of the meeting was ...Read More »
By Cheryl Manchenton, RN, BSN
From a bird’s–eye view, your CDI program may be a well-oiled machine. CDI specialists pose queries, physicians respond, and coders assign the most accurate and specific codes. But, what happens as your organization continues its journey from volume-...Read More »
