Training

All inpatient coders, their manager and director must attend CDMP® didactic training.
All new hires must attend a CDMP® didactic training by WebEx or in our JATA Classroom in Atlanta.
Coders must be trained in CDMP® to code CDMP® reviewed charts.

Leadership

A CDMP® Coding Liaison must be appointed for coding departments with 8 or more coding professionals.
A member of the coding staff will co-chair the Task Force Committee.

Process

Ensure strict adherence to the CDMP® process map

• Unanswered queries identified by the coding professionals are to be given back to the Clinical Documentation Specialist (CDS) for face-to-face interaction with physician to obtain response
• Queries identified by the professional coder should follow the HIM department’s policy & procedures for retrospective querying. Collaboration with the CDS should be encouraged to expedite query resolution
• Reconciliation occurs for all cases where the CDS and the coding professional are in disagreement prior to dropping of the final bill
• Coding professionals learn appropriate CDMPTrak® codes
• Appropriate CDMPTrak® codes are applied to every CDMP® worksheet

Task Force

All inpatient coding professionals attend Task Force meetings.
Coding professionals provide updates to Coding Clinics.
Coding professionals provide education on coding guidelines.

CDMP® Program

CDMP® success is identified as responsibility of the director, manager, liaison and coding professional.
CDMP® success, measured by the benchmarks, is added to the director’s, manager & coding professional’s evaluation.
Coding professionals must attain benchmarks set by the CDMP® program.

Benchmarks:

>70% agreement with the clinicians
<20% explanation needed

The JATA Consultants were phenomenal in helping our team jump in with both feet to begin working the program and applying the strategies immediately.