By Linnea Archibald

According to a poll on the ACDIS website last summer, 73% of respondents perform clinical validation reviews, yet advice for these reviews has long been murky for CDI professionals.

Despite the sparse and often contested guidance on the subject, CDI professionals are thrown into the fray of clinical validation reviews and queries, in part because of the current denial landscape. Though code assignment “is based upon the provider’s diagnostic statement that a condition exists,” it doesn’t stop external auditors from denying the reported codes because of lackluster documentation in the medical record.

How many of your providers actually carry through the queried diagnoses through to the daily progress notes? This is the question the newest ACDIS polling probes.

In January, MedPAC recommended that MIPS be thrown out and replaced with a new alternative payment program, but CMS isn’t ready to throw in the towel.

EHRs don’t reduce administrative costs, according to a study published in JAMA.

Local chapter leaders are supported by a group of volunteers who meet on a monthly basis to discuss common concerns related to planning events for the CDI community.

Women who attend conferences related to their profession are more likely to receive a promotion, according to a recent study focused on the conference/career connection from the Harvard Business Review.

Q: I understand what unstable angina is, but what’s stable angina? How is it coded?

Without a clear sense of how much CAUTIs cost, hospitals may not be appropriately responding to CMS' financial incentives.