Tomato or Tomahto?

language

We have a saying in CDI, “words matter”, and it is absolutely true. Over the years I have learned a valuable lesson – words have different meanings dependent on setting and audience. This may seem intuitive, but I had never thought of it happening within a healthcare setting, where in my mind, we all think…

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Nurse-Led CDI?

cdi

Our CDI model at Norwood is Nurse-Led, Physician-Sensitive, Coding-Supported, and Patient-Centered. I’ve been asked about this a few times – as I believe we are the only program that explicitly states “nurse-led”. Most outpatient CDI programs are physician-led. I completely understand and respect this as healthcare has traditionally been led by physicians. Over the last…

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Grandma’s Apple Pie.

cdi

Who is baking in your CDI kitchen? In the spirit of our theme for CDI week, “CDI Kitchen: Recipes for a Successful Program”, I was thinking about the perfect recipe for a well-functioning CDI program. So many are searching to fine tune the recipe – to get the consistency just right. Unlike a perfectly measured…

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Can CDI Programs Really Make a Difference?

cdi

I have heard it said that the overall goal of Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) is to improve documentation for coding and reimbursement. Even though this is in fact a valued outcome of many CDI programs, I argue that it is not the overarching goal of CDI today. With the ensuing complexity of technology, such as…

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Electronic Health Records Creating a ‘New Era’ of Health Care Fraud, Officials Say

“The Justice Department accused eClinicalWorks, an EHR company whose medical software is used by 130,000 providers, of rigging the government’s certification test, claims the company has denied. eCW settled the case for $155 million in 2017.The concern is not just over wasteful spending of tax dollars. EHRs monitor the medicines people take and their vital…

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CMS Wants More Transparency

Just in case you don’t have time to read the 219 page proposal, here are 6 key take aways from the new hospital price transparency rule. It will be interesting to watch how both health systems and consumers respond to the changes. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/cms-finalizes-hospital-price-transparency-rule-6-things-to-know.html

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Project Nightingale

Interesting read after our Founder just gave two presentations on the future of healthcare and how “traditional healthcare” will be transformed over the next decade. New healthcare entrants including 84% of Fortune 50 companies have their sights set on the $3.5 trillion healthcare industry (18% of GDP). Venture Capital funding has doubled over the past 2 years, and AI investment is seeing an annual growth rate of 40%. Data surpassed O&G as the most valuable asset in our economy 2 years ago, and healthcare is the next big market for these tech giants. With the integration of EMR’s, health systems are very capable of capturing a significant amount of data.

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