The Ideal State of CDI- Collaborating Synergistically With All Other Ancillary Healthcare Roles to Achieve Real Meaningful Improvement in the Communication of Patient Care. Let’s Not Forget the Patient in any CDI Initiative. Reimbursement is a byproduct measure of documentation improvement that is sustainable over time. Rather than CDI specialists focus primarily upon capture of diagnoses, i.e., CC/MCC, principal diagnosis shift, HAC and PSI clarification

CDI’s present-day Key Performance Indicators centered upon reimbursement do not truly reflect a meaningful account of performance in impacting the quality, completeness and effectiveness of medical record documentation. Common KPIs include number of physician queries left, number of queries responded to by the physician, number of queries responded to by the physician that captured a CC or MCC, number of queries responded to by the physician that impacted severity of illness/risk of mortality number of charts opened and reviewed per day, etc.

I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Maria Mirt to the latest episode of the No Fears CDI Podcast! Maria joins us at the fascinating crossroads of primary care, operations, and clinical documentation integrity (CDI). Her insights are both practical and inspiring, especially for clinicians and practice leaders navigating today’s documentation demands.

As outlined in the 2019 Medicare Fee-For-Service Supplemental Improper Payment Data Report, the overall Medicare Improper Payment Rate was pegged at 7.3% translating into $28.91 billion paid to providers improperly. This is a marked improvement from 2018 when the improper payment rate was 8.1% which represented $31.62 billion. The bulk of those improper payments paid by Medicare in 2019, similar to 2018, were attributable to two related

Complacency is the main contributing factor that leads to suboptimal performance and achievement of sustainable operational processes and outcomes for any business. Clinical documentation improvement programs have discounted the necessity to evolve with the times, overlooking critical opportunities to contribute to the overall welfare of the healthcare delivery model. A strong CDI program for the right reasons with an underlying commitment to achieving

Most Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) programs are mislabeled and misidentified in the present format. Integrity is defined as the quality or state of being complete or undivided per Merriam-Webster. A few years back the association representing the Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist’s community elected to replace the “Improvement” part of the name to “Integrity”, now referred to as Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialists.

Palmetto GBA just this week posted on its website an article titled Hospital Readmission Without Septicema discussing the CMS Hospital Readmission Reduction Program. pointing out the cost of unplanned readmissions is $15 to $20 billion annually. Interesting enough the following statements in the article run contrary to findings of a study published in January’s Health Affairs

Clinical documentation integrity programs have evolved over time with its expansion of duties and responsibilities beyond CC/MCC diagnosis capture. The profession has expanded its reach into quality measures such as Hospital Acquired Conditions, Patient Safety Indicators, Core Measures, and other documentation driven reportable measures of care. Fundamental to operational performance of any clinical documentation integrity program is enhancing the physician’s

Effective physician communication of patient care serves a wide array of different purposes in the overall scheme of healthcare delivery, the most important consisting of facilitating fully informed coordinated patient focused quality outcomes-based cost-effective care for the patient. The American College of Physicians sums it up nicely when it comes to the primary purpose of clinical documentation in an article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine position

Most Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) programs are mislabeled and misidentified in the present format. Integrity is defined as the quality or state of being complete or undivided per Merriam-Webster. A few years back the association representing the Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist’s community elected to replace the “Improvement” part of the name to “Integrity”, now referred to as Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialists.