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Start Your Journey with the Norwood Outpatient CDI Boot Camp
Our campers are all smiles. To learn more or schedule a call contact us at solutions@norwood.com. Download the brochure here. Risk adjustment is a team sport. Accurately depicting the complexity of a broad patient population across your organization requires contributions from patient registration to providers—and everyone in between, including well-trained risk adjustment coding and…
Read MoreSolutions Spotlight: OIG Toolkit a Valuable Blueprint for Risk Adjustment Coding Compliance
By Brian Murphy The OIG Toolkit To Help Decrease Improper Payments in Medicare Advantage Through the Identification of High-Risk Diagnosis Codes is a valuable tool in your compliance arsenal. One you should be using if you’re at all involved with risk adjustment. What is the Toolkit? The toolkit offers Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAO) information that…
Read MoreFive Emerging Mid-Revenue Cycle Roles
By Brian Murphy New job functions will be needed to meet the changing nature of healthcare delivery and reimbursement. And soon. Here are five. These are my predictions but I feel good about them. Note: Many/most of these exist in some form or fashion now, but I believe the demand will grow, and explain why.…
Read MoreHCC Best Practice Advisory (BPA) Alerts a Hot Topic in Compliant Condition Capture
By Jason Jobes, SVP, Norwood Solutions HOT TOPIC QUESTION: Are you using Epic HCC BPAs (or similar tools) and are you worried about their appropriateness or compliance? DISCLOSURE: Norwood does not possess/sell any technology that competes with use of the Epic BPA or currently partner with organizations that have similar functionality. This question is aimed…
Read MoreClean Up Your Problem Lists to Facilitate Accurate Coding
By Brian Murphy Per CMS, a problem list is “a list of current and active diagnoses as well as past diagnoses relevant to the current care of the patient.” But they’re often much more. Physicians use them as a place to think in ink about ongoing and active conditions or store other summarized patient data. …
Read MoreBreaking into CDI as a Foreign Medical Graduate: Eight Strategies for Success
By Brian Murphy Foreign medical graduates (FMG) can make for wonderful CDI professionals—but breaking into the profession poses a unique challenge. Many FMGs emigrate to the U.S. to pursue a career in medicine, but are faced with long odds (30,000 applications for 7000-8000 open residency slots, per one data point I found) and defer that…
Read MoreHIV Infections and Principal Diagnosis Selection
By Joanne Wilson, RN, ASN, CCDS, Senior Director, Solutions, Norwood This article marks the beginning of a learning mini-series to address conditions commonly needing clarification for novice and expert CDI staff. We hope you enjoy them! Joanne welcomes your questions or comments at joanne@norwood.com. The first topic in this miniseries is Human Immunodeficiency Disease (HIV) infections.…
Read MoreCompliant Chronic Condition Reporting Requires Provider Documentation of Ongoing Care or Management
By Brian Murphy Chronic condition reporting is more important than ever these days, but also a subject of increasing scrutiny. When a patient comes in for an outpatient visit with a chronic condition, should we report it? The TL;DR answer (to me at least) appears to be that it is the provider’s responsibility to document…
Read MoreNEJM Study: AI not Ready to Perform Basic Medical Coding, Let Alone Replace People
In the battle of artificial intelligence (AI) vs. humans, score one for humanity. Yeah, a provocative opening line, and probably needlessly so. AI is after all supposed to be a tool that allows us to do more and/or focus on higher order tasks, resulting in increased efficiency and output. I just don’t happen…
Read MoreTransforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) Reconfirms CMS Commitment to Bundled Payments and Value-Based Care
By Brian Murphy Every time I think bundled payments are out, they drag me back in. I like the concept. We know that fragmented care can lead to complications in recovery, avoidable hospitalization, and increased spending. Under bundled payment models, providers assume accountability for the quality and costs of care delivered during a complete episode,…
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