In this episode, Victoria Hernandez, BESLER Senior Coding Analyst will provide us with a glimpse into the first webinar as part of BESLER’s newly launched The Hospital Finance Academy, The Role of CDI, that she’s presenting live on Wednesday, August 28th, at 1 PM ET.
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Learn how to listen to The Hospital Finance Podcast® on your mobile device.Highlights of this episode include:
- What to expect at The Role of CDI webinar
- Coding query/CDI query
- Best way to initiate a CDI program
- The collaboration between CDI and coding
Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re pleased to welcome back Victoria Hernandez, BESLER Senior Coding Analyst. In this episode, Victoria will provide us with a glimpse into the first webinar as part of BESLER’s newly launched The Hospital Finance Academy, The Role of CDI, that she’s presenting live on Wednesday, August 28th, at 1 PM Eastern Time. You can earn one CEU. Welcome back and thank you for joining us, Victoria.
Victoria Hernandez: Thank you, Kelly. It’s always a pleasure to be here in this podcast.
Kelly: Yes, well, let’s go ahead and jump in. So, I understand that even though the upcoming webinar is titled The Role of CDI, that you’re going to be covering much more than that. Can you share some information on what our audience can expect from your webinar on August 28th?
Victoria: Yes, absolutely. So, our upcoming webinar on August 28th, it’s called The Role of CDI. And you’re right, we will be covering several layers about CDI, which is also referred to as clinical documentation improvement or clinical documentation integrity. So, in addition to going over the role of CDI, we will be reviewing how CDI impacts the revenue cycle. Then we’ll be presenting the collaborative relationship and process between CDI and coding. So that collaboration between those two coding and CDI, or with coding, you’ll also see them referred to as HIM or Health Information Management. So that is a very important and valuable collaboration right there. And as an added plus, we’ll also be sharing some documentation and coding best practices on a couple of good, challenging diagnoses. It’s just been hot topics out there in the field. So, for starters, encephalopathy, that’s a good one. And there’s also cerebral edema or brain compression. Those two, they’ve been identified as challenging conditions when it comes to complete documentation and accurate coding. So yes, we will be going over best practices and also important checklists on initiating a CDI program. So yes, we’ll definitely be sharing a lot with our audience.
Kelly: Wow, just like you mentioned, it sounds like you’re going to be covering different layers of importance and best practices involving CDI. So, can you tell us more about what we can expect to learn in the webinar? I know you’ve already mentioned a lot, but tell us more.
Victoria: Yes, absolutely. So, on the 28th of August, we’ll be introducing the roles of both actually CDI and coding, and then that whole revenue cycle impact. So, there’s a lot of layers there. Then we’ll share some of the documentation and coding best practices, on the two challenging diagnoses that I mentioned. So, we have the encephalopathy, the cerebral edema, or brain compression. Then this would then include the different condition types, for example, and we’ll also be looking at some coding queries and CDI queries. We’ll be sharing those query examples as well, some toolkits. Those are always good to have and overall what a CDI program would look like and how to initiate one in their organization.
Kelly: Wow, again, that’s going to be a lot of content there. So, I understand a coding query or CDI query by itself would already be a good topic for an hour-long webinar already. It sounds like our attendees will be walking away with some good information about CDI altogether. And I heard you mention initiating a CDI program. So do you feel that there’s one best specific way to initiate a CDI program?
Victoria: Oh, that’s a good question, Kelly. So as much as I wish that there’s one best way or this master key on initiating or implementing a CDI program, unfortunately, it may not be that simple. So, there are some things that one should consider. So that would depend on, let’s say, the organization size, how much staff they have, how about the different payer types that they’ll be reviewing, and also depending on what the organization’s leadership’s priority is or focus, for example, are they prioritizing Medicare encounters or maybe even Medicaid or third-party payers even? Or will it be payer agnostic? So, I know I like using that word because when I say payer agnostic, it refers to all payers, which actually I think would be ideal. So, there’s just not one. We’re checking it across the board. So yeah, there’s a few items to consider when initiating a CDI program. So, we’ll be covering the different ways. Also, using a checklist and the organizations, they may customize and align it however it’s applicable to them based on their organization’s needs.
Kelly: Wow. Again, it sounds like there’s just going to be a ton covered. There’s a lot of important topics you’re covering in this webinar, and you mentioned the collaboration between CDI and coding. Can you speak more about that?
Victoria: Yes, of course. So, we’ll be sharing the different roles and that’s covering the day-to-day tasks of CDI and coding from even starting off, let’s say, with the different credentials, the requirements, there’s the backgrounds, the duties, and even expectations. Yeah, and also the escalation process based on their roles and their queries, and down to just the overall responsibilities. Then we’ll also move on to the workflow, the process and impact in the said revenue cycle, and pretty much the various challenges of each role. So, then we’ll visit actual documentation and query examples involving both the CDI and coding roles. So yes, yes, a lot to cover.
Kelly: So, it sounds like the webinar is really going to be covering different topics related to CDI. And I’m sure our audience will walk away with key best practices in these various areas that you mentioned. So, Victoria, is there anything else you’d like to share with us today about the webinar?
Victoria: Yes, Kelly, I would like to invite our listeners to attend our upcoming webinar on The Role of CDI. This is August 28th. And as you mentioned earlier, I’m thrilled that BESLER will be providing the CEUs for our attendees. And so, I hope everyone can join.
Kelly: Yes, I agree. Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Victoria, and for sharing this sneak peek into The Hospital Finance Academy webinar, The Role of CDI, that you’re presenting live with CEU, like you mentioned, on August 28th at 1 PM Eastern Time. Thanks again, Victoria.
Victoria: Thank you, Kelly.
Kelly: And thank you all for joining us for this episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…
[music] This concludes today’s episode of the Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.com/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of BESLER | SMART ABOUT REVENUE, TENACIOUS ABOUT RESULTS.
If you have a topic that you’d like us to discuss on the Hospital Finance podcast or if you’d like to be a guest, drop us a line at update@besler.com.
