Hybrid (Virtual & In-Person) Event
Overview
9:15 AM – 9:30 AM
Welcome
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Both professional and inpatient facility codes are applied on separate claims but supported often by the same documentation furnished during the hospital encounter. While many documentation and coding requirements are different, the codes are derived from the same clinical notes. Yet there are ample opportunities for synergy in documentation improvement that serves both purposes. If not well understood, this can result in confusion and a perception of competing demands for clinicians. When these functions are misaligned, it leads to inaccurate reimbursement, compliance risk, and inconsistent quality data. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate how structured collaboration between professional and facility coding, anchored within a Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) framework, enhances coding accuracy, revenue integrity, and organizational trust.
Learning Objectives:
TBD
Dr. Sansrita Nepal, MD MBA FACP
1.0 – Revenue Cycle Management
10:30 AM – 10:35 AM
Break
10:35 AM – 11:35 AM
Clinical documentation integrity programs commonly prioritize diagnoses that affect reimbursement, severity of illness, and risk adjustment. Maternal and newborn records, however, are often excluded from routine CDI review because many documentation opportunities do not significantly change payment. The consequences of incomplete, conflicting, or imprecise documentation in these populations can still be substantial.
This session will demonstrate why maternal and newborn patients deserve a place within the CDI workflow. Through coding guidance, quality-measure requirements, and real-world examples, participants will explore how documentation and code assignment can affect cesarean birth rates, severe maternal morbidity reporting, unexpected newborn complication measures, hospital benchmarking, regulatory data, and the accuracy of the patient’s longitudinal health record.
Attendees will leave with practical strategies for identifying high-value query opportunities and building collaboration among CDI specialists, coders, clinicians, nursing, and quality teams – even when reimbursement is not the primary concern.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain why maternal and newborn CDI is important even when documentation changes do not affect reimbursement.
- Identify documentation and coding issues that can influence maternal and newborn quality measures, including PC-02, PC-06, and severe maternal morbidity reporting.
- Apply MEAT and newborn MEAT-plus criteria when evaluating whether secondary diagnoses are clinically significant and reportable.
- Recognize documentation gaps that may inaccurately classify hemorrhage, acute kidney injury, coagulation disorders, fetal malposition, neonatal complications, or reasons for transfer.
- Develop compliant query and education strategies that improve collaboration among providers, coders, CDI specialists, nursing, and quality teams.
- Describe how accurate documentation supports reliable benchmarking, regulatory reporting, patient safety initiatives, and the integrity of the patient’s long-term medical record.
Kristi Pollard, RHIT, CCS, CPC, CIRCC
1.0 – Revenue Cycle Management
11:35 AM – 12:30 PM
This interactive panel brings together a CDI representative and a coding professional to answer real‑world questions submitted by conference participants. Attendees will have the opportunity to anonymously submit questions in the morning, and our panel will address as many as possible during the live session. This format encourages open dialogue, clarifies gray areas, and highlights how CDI and coding teams can collaborate more effectively. Any questions we are unable to address during the session will be compiled and answered in a post‑conference follow‑up, giving participants a valuable bonus resource for continued learning.
Learning Objectives:
The session will help participants strengthen collaboration between CDI and coding, clarify how both disciplines interpret complex or ambiguous documentation, enhance decision‑making around compliant query practices, and apply real‑world problem‑solving to improve documentation accuracy, reduce variation, and support consistent, defensible coding outcomes.
Sandy Brewton
Rebecca Black, RHIT, CCS
1.0 – Revenue Cycle Management
12:35 PM – 1:35 PM
Artificial intelligence can now touch a single encounter at four points: the note is dictated by an ambient tool, nudged by a real-time prompt, coded by an assisted or autonomous system, and prioritized by a model that decides whether a human reviews the chart at all. This session gives coding and clinical documentation integrity professionals a working vocabulary for these systems, a tour of what is already live in the electronic health record, and a practical read on the 2026 ACDIS/AHIMA update extending query standards to technology-generated prompts, nudges, and advisories. Attendees leave with vendor questions they can use immediately and a candid look at how our roles may change.
Learning Objectives:
- Differentiate the categories of artificial intelligence used in clinical documentation and coding — rules-based natural language processing, classical machine learning, generative systems, and agentic systems — and explain why deterministic and probabilistic tools require fundamentally different validation and audit strategies.
- Apply the 2026 ACDIS/AHIMA compliant query practice guidance to technology-generated communications, including real-time documentation nudges, computer-assisted coding prompts, and generative advisories, and determine when such a communication meets the definition of a query across inpatient, ambulatory, and professional fee settings.
- Assess the governance requirements for artificial intelligence tools that generate documentation or coding output, including human accountability for automated queries, audit trail expectations, and structured review of tool performance over time.
Dr. Gregory Norris, MD FAAP
1.0 – Evolving Topics
1:40 PM – 2:40 PM
This session will walk through several key challenges CDI professionals face today and offer practical tools to strengthen your daily practice.
We’ll take a clear, approachable look at Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) and how they influence CDI priorities and quality outcomes. You’ll also get guidance on query practice—when a query is appropriate, why it matters, and how to assess whether it will meaningfully impact the patient encounter or reporting.
We’ll round things out with helpful tips for navigating electronic code sets and a review of principal diagnosis selection, including how ICD‑10‑CM Coding Conventions can guide your decision‑making.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain how Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) impact CDI workflows and documentation priorities
- Identify appropriate scenarios for issuing queries and determine when a query will impact the admission
- Evaluate query effectiveness using key criteria for measuring documentation impact
- Apply efficient strategies for navigating and searching electronic code sets
- Analyze factors influencing the selection of the principal diagnosis
- Recognize the role of ICD-10-CM Coding Conventions in accurate code assignment
Sandy Brewton, RHIT, CCDS, CCS, CICA
1.0 – Revenue Cycle Management
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM
As reimbursement models shift toward value-based and risk-adjusted payment structures, documentation accuracy in the outpatient setting has never mattered more. This session examines how Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) principles — long established in the inpatient world — translate to ambulatory, physician practice, and outpatient facility environments.
Learning Objectives:
The session will build knowledge in four areas:
- Foundations – How outpatient CDI differs from inpatient (HCC/risk adjustment and E/M focus vs. DRG optimization), and how documentation ties to reimbursement and specificity requirements.
- Coding Application– Spotting documentation gaps that affect E/M leveling, using MEAT criteria for HCC capture, and understanding modifiers, split/shared visits, and G2211.
- Compliance– Writing compliant, non-leading queries and recognizing audit red flags like unsupported diagnoses or copy-forward errors.
- Workflow & Impact– Connecting CDI to quality metrics (HEDIS, Star Ratings) and building smart chart-review prioritization.
Bottom line: trainees should leave able to identify gaps, query compliantly, and understand how outpatient documentation drives both revenue and quality outcomes.
Gina Fontenette RHIT, CCS, CPC, COC, CIRCC, CDEO, CPMA, COSC, CGSC
1.0 – Revenue Cycle Management
Course Info
Event Date
September 11, 2026
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM MST
* This event will also be available on-demand after the live webinar.
Total CEs
6.0
Domain(s)
Revenue Cycle Management
Location
The Penrose House Conference Center
1661 Mesa Ave
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Pricing
In‑Person (limited capacity of 50)/Virtual
CHIMA Member
$70
Non-Member
$80
CHIMA Student
$50
Non-Member Student
$60
Please note: If someone registers for the virtual option, they cannot attend in person, as our room capacity is limited to 50.
CHIMA Member – an AHIMA dues-paying member who has selected Colorado as their Component Association (CA)
Non-Member – includes AHIMA dues-paying members from other AHIMA Component Associations (CA) as well as AHIMA Credentialed Non-Members
Learn More
Speakers
Additional Information
AHIMA
This educational offering has been approved for continuing education credit for use in fulfilling the continued education requirements of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
AAPC
CEUs are accepted from programs sponsored by AHIMA national offices and the state or regional AHIMA branches. One hour of instruction is worth one CEU. A certificate of attendance or completion is necessary to show participation.
ACDIS
AHIMA CEUs that are CDI-related are accepted.
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Webinar Access Instructions
The live webinar access instructions will be included in the confirmation email that you will receive after you register.
How Do I Receive the CE?
During the week following the live webinar, all paid registrants will receive an email with the CE.
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Access instructions for the course will be emailed to you within 2 business days following receipt of payment.
You will have 60 days to access the course after access has been granted.
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- For on-demand events, access instructions for the course will be emailed to you within 2 business days following receipt of payment.
- You will have 60 days to access the course. If your course has expired, and you need an extension, please contact us.
- You must click on the button labeled “Mark Complete” at the bottom of each course page before the CE will appear on the My Certificates page.
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Course Content
