Practice focus

Cindi is part of our Clinical Documentation Assessment team and has over 22 years of experience assisting academic medical centers, hospitals, and physician practice groups with ICD-9 coding compliance audits. She is currently involved with ICD-10 readiness assessment and implementation projects including assessments of coder, physician and clinician training needs.

She specializes in Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI), MS-DRG and APR-DRG compliance audits, and physician education. She has experience in deliberating the RAC appeal process along with the Keystone Peer Review organization (KEPRO).  She was recently consulted to assist in the development of an automated concurrent CDI program with a large health system in western Pennsylvania.

Practice Areas                                                                                                                                                                                  

• Clinical Documentation Improvement
• MS-DRG, APR-DRG compliance audits
• ICD-10

Education and certifications

• Associates Degree in Health Information Management
• Registered Health Information Technology (RHIT)
• Certified Coding Specialist (CCS)

Professional Associations                           

• American Health Information Management Association
• Western Pennsylvania Health Information Management

Representative Engagements:

• In-depth review of MS-DRG payers (Medicare and commercial)
• Collaborated with physicians, CDI specialists, and coding staff for MS-DRG accuracy
• Analyzed remittance advices to create a focused audit list for optimum reimbursement
• Educated CDI specialists and coders on monthly audit results including documentation improvement areas and financial impact