Salaries improving for CDI specialist, according to ACDIS annual survey

By Brian Murphy

ACDIS released its annual CDI Salary Survey. I recommend you go read it, it represents a ton of work and it’s an incredibly valuable resource for the industry.

I’d be saying this even if I didn’t used to work for ACDIS. Link below.

Here are some interesting data points and trends.

Salaries are improving. 72% of frontline CDI specialists/chart review roles report earning between $80-120K. In 2023 47% said they earned less than $90K, and that number fell to 31% in 2024. A little over 80% of survey respondents reported getting a raise in 2024, of an average 3%.

CDI leaders also saw their earnings increase. More than 73% of managers reported earnings of at least $110,000, up from just 55% a year ago. Most CDI supervisors (51%) landed in the $100-119K bracket, and most CDI Directors (about 77%) earned $140K or more in 2024.

Credentials correlate to earnings. In 2023, 47% of CCDS holders earned $110K or more, and that number ballooned to 63% in 2024. That holds true for CDIP holders as well.

Most CDI professionals remain nurses. Just about 70% hold an RN credential. Nearly 65% hold their CCDS from ACDIS, as opposed to just 10% with the CDIP from AHIMA (this number might not reflect reality, as the survey audience is ACDIS members/subscribers). Also, not really news but most CDI professionals are women (more than 91% of respondents). This tracks slightly higher than bedside nurses, of which some 12% are men according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2023.

Revenue cycle reporting structure still rules. Most respondents (about 36%) say CDI reports to their organization’s revenue cycle/integrity department, followed by 21% to HIM/coding, 11% to finance, and about 11% to quality. No surprise for me here, my only surprise was seeing 2% of CDI departments report to population health.

Remote work holds steady. About 58% of respondents work 100% remotely, about the same as last year. We’ve seen a move toward return to office in some segments of the private sector, but not CDI. 17% of respondents said they work partially remote with mandated on-site days.

What do you think about these trends? Any big surprises here? Ready to ask for a raise? I always welcome thoughts and comments at my email: brian.murphy@norwood.com.

• View the full survey here (requires ACDIS membership): https://acdis.org/resources/2024-cdi-salary-survey