Many healthcare facilities choose to hire clinical documentation improvement (CDI) specialists who review electronic documentation for accuracy and operational efficiency. CDI specialists also have a significant impact on a facility’s revenue cycle management. Discover the important role of CDI specialists in healthcare and learn why partnering with a staffing solution, such as Medix, can improve your facility’s financial viability.
Documentation Accuracy
CDI specialists have an essential role in maintaining accurate data in documentation. This data includes measures that affect reimbursements, including severity of illness, patient safety indicators, and risk of mortality. CDI teams work diligently to minimize errors related to this data, ensuring facilities receive accurate, timely reimbursements without delays.
CDI specialists’ focus on documentation accuracy can prevent costly audits. During these audits, authorities may find errors that result in significant fines or mandated refunds to payers. By ensuring the accuracy of data, CDI specialists minimize the likelihood of those audits, saving their facilities from this time-consuming and expensive process.
Revenue Capture and Compliance
Besides on-time reimbursements and audit prevention, CDI has a clear link to revenue in other ways. The Medicare payment system is dependent on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), requiring accurate documentation to be fully effective for healthcare facilities. Based on an example by the American Academy of Professional Coders1, an inaccurate DRG assignment can lead to much lower reimbursements, resulting in lagging cash flow and lower revenue.
Accurate documentation can also ensure that a healthcare facility complies with all regulatory requirements and payer guidelines. CDI specialists have an in-depth understanding of federal regulations regarding patient data and payer requirements. With their expertise, healthcare facilities can minimize the chances of costly medical claims related to inaccurate data and diagnoses.
Operational Efficiency
In addition to CDI’s role in revenue cycle management, it can contribute to operational efficiency for healthcare teams. Recent research shows that certain stressors, including documentation, have led to increased levels of burnout among physicians and healthcare providers.2 CDI specialists can improve workflows and boost accuracy, allowing providers to focus more on their clinical tasks and patient outcomes..
CDI specialists can also help reduce denials caused by inaccurate codes or reporting processes. By minimizing these errors, the rate of denials can decrease substantially, allowing healthcare facilities to stabilize revenue and optimize their financial health.
Benefits of Partnering With Medix
By partnering with Medix, you can gain access to a highly qualified, thoroughly vetted pool of CDI specialists. These professionals can work within your organization to maintain compliance, optimize workflows, and maximize revenue.
Some core benefits of partnering with Medix for CDI staffing include:
- Technical expertise: It’s essential to hire CDI specialists with the right technical expertise, which usually includes a combination of both clinical and medical coding knowledge. Rather than spending significant time and resources to find talent with this expertise, allow Medix to do the work for you by sourcing, recruiting, and hiring talent with the skills and knowledge you need.
- Strategic planning and alignment: CDI specialists should be a key part of your long-term strategic planning for revenue integrity. At Medix, we specialize in working with organizations to understand their goals for revenue performance and improvement, and we can find the right talent to align with your long-term plans.
- Flexible staffing: We offer flexible staffing solutions to meet your current needs, budget, and goals. Whether you need short-term help with CDI or you’re looking to build a qualified team to optimize revenue capture, we can work with your organization to deliver appropriate staffing solutions.
- Improved retention: We go to great lengths to ensure the CDI talent we source will match your organization’s mission and culture. In addition, you can assess a specialist’s performance without committing to a permanent job offer, ensuring you make the right hire the first time.
Build a Qualified CDI Team With Medix
Are you ready to take the next steps toward building a highly qualified team of CDI specialists who can eliminate costly documentation errors and boost your facility’s bottom line? We have over 20 years of experience partnering with facilities to find specialized talent for revenue cycle management. Learn more about our staffing expertise and contact us today to get started.
