Posts by Norwood Staffing
Structure your physician advisor program not just for financial ROI, but work-life balance
By Brian Murphy Physicians are the lifeblood of a hospital. They provide lifesaving treatment and specialized care but also write the admission orders that keep the lights on. So how do you take 15 physicians and carve out half of their priceless time for CDI? By demonstrating return on investment (ROI). A.J. Hegg is an…
Read MoreRising from ruin and talking telehealth, SDOH with Keisha Wilson
Listen to the episode here. Regular listeners of Off the Record will recall Keisha Wilson, whom I hosted on the program in June 2024 to talk about telehealth as well as her story of entrepreneurship. She was a bright light and a great guest, so I asked her to return to the show a…
Read MoreWorried how you’ll survive in V28 of CMS-HCCs? Fear not, we’ve got the guide
By Brian Murphy Download the CMS-HCCs V28 Survival Guide To survive in Version 28 of CMS-HCCs, you need a playbook. Check that, you need a survival guide. The good news is, we’ve put one together. Download Norwood SVP Jason Jobes’ analysis of the changes, the data and analytics underpinning the new risk model, and a…
Read MoreInpatient vs. outpatient coding differences place provider certainty under the spotlight, raise risk adjustment question
By Brian Murphy Why can diagnoses in the hospital inpatient setting be coded if they are possible/probable/likely/suspected, but in the outpatient world you can only code to the highest degree of known specificity? The difference is rooted in the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting. In the hospital inpatient setting, you are allowed to…
Read MoreWhat is your CDI chart review process in the outpatient setting? One organization’s is very thorough
By Brian Murphy Among the highlights of my interview with current Off the Record guest Glenda Bocskovits was hearing about her organization’s process of outpatient CDI chart review. Which is very thorough. The practice of OP CDI is an art, with no one right way. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say most…
Read MoreIs a computer-generated nudge a query? According to extant guidance, yes… but do we need new guidance?
By Brian Murphy Is a nudge, a best practice alert, or some other machine prompted question to a physician, a query? I’m risking a very contentious topic here. But it’s one that comes up a lot in conversation. According to the latest ACDIS-AHIMA query brief, the answer is yes. A query is a query is…
Read MoreCMS announces massive audits of Medicare Advantage plans; time for compliance is now
By Jason Jobes, SVP, Solutions HUGE CMS AUDIT ALERT: CMS just dropped major news that they are exponentially increasing Medicare Advantage and risk adjustment audits. WOW! Our Norwood team has become an industry leader in understanding the nuances of Medicare Advantage audits, risk score accuracy, and education. Are you ready? Is your outpatient CDI program…
Read MoreAn urgent issue: How admit type can skew quality metrics
Listen to the episode here. I’m recently back from the 2025 ACDIS national conference, and as usual flush with the latest in CDI trends, education, and breaking news. And right at the top of my takeaways is a seemingly innocuous classification with big ramifications: admit type. What makes this a big deal? Some hospitals…
Read MoreThe increasing complexity of CDI begs the question: How can we simplify and move forward?
By Brian Murphy Clinical documentation integrity (CDI) has grown increasingly complex. We’ve all heard about the “quadruple aim” of healthcare (a framework whch I’ve never liked, four aims = no aim), but in comparison to CDI the quadruple aim=amateur hour. Many CDI programs have more than a dozen aims. Today a CDI department might track…
Read MoreAssigning codes from clinicians other than the patient’s provider
By Brian Murphy One of the hard truths about medical coding is that codes can only be assigned based on documentation from the patient’s provider. More specifically, a qualified physician or other practitioner who can be held legally accountable for rendering a patient’s diagnosis. This rule undoubtedly is a source of frustration and even provider…
Read More