By Melissa Varnavas

Next Friday, August 11, ACDIS Editor Linnea Archibald and I will head down to Newton, Massachusetts for the third-annual joint ACDIS/AHIMA New England CDI Symposium. The leaders of the MaHIMA, NYHIMA, and MA ACDIS have met for months to develop a comprehensive agenda to fit the educational needs of both coding and clinical documentation professionals.

This is an amazing story about the importance of collaboration and the value of networking and education in our tiny slice of the healthcare industry we serve. And it’s a story that’s not just happening in New England but is playing out across the country.

Which types of clinicians will get “special status” from CMS for the Quality Payment Program (QPP) data submissions this year? CMS recently updated its website with a tool providers can use to check to see whether they are exempt from participation in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), one of two payment pathways under the QPP.

Researchers at NYU Langone found that many informal consultations between referrers and radiologists were captured incompletely or inadequately in the electronic health record (EHR), according to Health Imaging.

Although the transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS was fairly smooth, two years later billing and coding experts say that, in most cases, the codes are not being put to their intended use.

Q: We recently reviewed a troubling case related to sepsis core extractions which revealed that the patient did not have sepsis and the physicians did not document sepsis as there was no bacterial infection. The CDI specialist, however, queried for severe sepsis twice. Finally, the admitting/discharging physician agreed and signed the query stating severe sepsis was present.

Finding the time to train residents around their busy rotations can be difficult for CDI managers and residency program coordinators. In this free 60-minute webinar, Laurie Prescott shares her best practices and teaching strategies for hospital residents.

The following is a list of upcoming events for ACDIS local chapters. If you have an upcoming event you would like to include, please email Melissa Varnavas (mvarnavas@acdis.org) and Linnea Archibald (larchibald@acdis.org).