Note from the ACDIS Editor: Get your magnifying glasses ready for a sneak peek at CDI Week data!

by Jess Fluegel

At ACDIS, one of our biggest endeavors each year as part of CDI Week is to create, circulate, analyze, and report on industry data collected from the whole CDI community. With more than 50 questions on provider and staff engagement, productivity, denials management, outpatient and risk adjustment, and pediatrics and OB/GYN, there is so much insight to sift through.

While I am still knee-deep in the numbers, I did want to pull up the caution tape for a minute and share a few insights from these top secret files before the full report is released at the start of CDI Week and we host our live free webinar about the results on Thursday, September 18, 1-2:30 p.m. Eastern, which you can register for here!

First, according to the 2025 CDI Week Industry Survey results, about 55% of CDI programs are involved with some sort of denials management. Of those whose CDI departments are not involved in denials management at their organization, 19% of respondents said they are planning to get involved in the near future.

When asked who in the CDI department is involved with the denials management/appeals process, almost 36% of respondents said a designated denials or appeals specialist in the CDI department, which is a notable increase from 2024 Industry Survey data (29.17%). About 85% of respondents reported that sepsis is one of their top five denied diagnoses, consistent with past years. Respiratory failure saw another small jump, from 74.02% who said respiratory failure was in their top list in 2024, to 77.61% in 2025. Encephalopathy saw a notable increase as well, chosen by 57.36% of respondents in comparison to 48.77% in 2024

In other news, almost 26% of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, “My CDI team is adequately staffed for the workload we have,” though this was a small decrease from the last time the question was asked in 2023 (30.33%). When asked how their organization offers assistance for staff looking to earn CEUs for professional development, the most common way was by offering access to a platform with CEU-approved education (55.07%), followed by educational opportunities provided by the organization (43.61%). About 20% of respondents said they receive no assistance or financial support at all.

Last, 46.25% of respondents reported their CDI teams review pediatric cases in either the inpatient or outpatient setting, and of the remaining half who do not yet review pediatric cases, 7.48% have plans to in the next 12 months.

I can’t wait to share more valuable insight with you during CDI Week (September 15-19!). In the meantime, keep an eye out for new activity resources and templates that will be posted on our website leading up to the week of celebration, and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!

Editor’s note: Fluegel is an editor for ACDIS. Contact her at jess.fluegel@hcpro.com.