Director’s Note: Speaker application period for 2014 conference now open

ACDIS is currently seeking speakers to present at the seventh annual ACDIS Conference, to be held May 7–9, 2014, at Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas.

Is that special person you or a colleague?
We seek speakers to present on all aspects of CDI. Advanced CDI sessions that push the profession forward are particularly welcome. Based on the learning needs identified by participants of the successful 2013 ACDIS Conference, several topics have emerged as areas of great interest therefore potential 2014 speakers should consider the following topic areas:

• ICD-10: Service line documentation requirements, Coding Clinic guidance and coding guidelines, dual coding, education for physicians, pathophysiology education/clinical sessions
• Physician queries: Queries for diagnoses without supporting clinical indicators, querying beyond basic heart failure/CKD/etc., examples of poor/noncompliant queries
• Complex chart review and/or coding scenarios, presenting actual cases
• Quality and its relationship to CDI (HACs, PSIs, mortality reviews, etc.)
• Value-based purchasing, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and other new or revised legislation affecting CDI
• Strategies for physician involvement: Presenting formal (group) and informal (one-on-one) educational sessions, strategies for reaching non-responsive physicians and increasing response rates/accountability, CDI and its relationship to physician E/M
• CDI opportunities by service line: Oncology, neurosurgery, advanced cardiology, pediatrics, etc.
• CDI metrics: Measuring success, explanation of data gathering and use, and presentation of data to hospital administration
• Recovery Auditors and payers: Successful strategies for denial avoidance and avoiding DRG downgrades, appeals writing, and collaboration with case management; combining case management and CDI functions
• EHRs and new technology: Implementation strategies and CDI-specific issues; electronic querying and computer-assisted coding; coping with cut-and-paste documentation issues, etc.
• CDI in other settings/program expansion: Outpatient CDI, HCCs, medical necessity review, ED, LTACs, critical access hospitals, psychiatric, additional payers, etc.
• Program management issues: Managing a remote program, setting productivity standards, managing across multiple facilities, determining staffing levels, career ladders/motivation for CDI staff
• Combining quality measures review, core measures review, and traditional DRG review: Case studies of successful programs
• CDI for the newcomer: How to review a record, basic concepts and queries, overview of important coding guidelines and clinical indicators by MDC
• Severity of illness and risk of mortality querying