Free Platforms Address COVID-19 Coding and Documentation

COVID-19 has struck with stunning ferocity causing uncertainty across the health care landscape. Beyond patient care and staff safety demands, the crisis has evoked unprecedented health information challenges to medical coding and billing and clinical documentation integrity (CDI). Intellis’ immediate action continues to set the pace by providing three avenues for information and education from trusted health care sources and Intellis subject matter experts (SME). To date, nearly 1000 medical coders, HIM leaders, and CDI specialists along with 18 health organizations have benefited from Intellis’ commitment to sharing free COVID-19 educational resources.

One Site for Information
As the HIM industry grapples to respond and provide clear direction, ambiguity reverberated as national health organizations release evolving updates. Intellis CEO David Van Doren says, “At the outset, we recognized the huge impact of COVID-19 on health information management (HIM). With our distributed workforce, we were instantly positioned to assist providers. Further, we created our IQ Crisis Team to consolidate and share HIM information.”

On the Intellis website, the team developed a single source where HIM professionals can obtain current COVID-19 directives and latest news from AHIMA, AMA, CDC, and CMS (intellisIQ.com/COVID-19). Each day, the website is updated as information becomes available. Also, Intellis prepared—and continually updates—Coding Tipsheets and FAQs. The Intellis IQ COVID-19 page has been visited nearly 2,500 times and the Tipsheets referenced over 1,500 times.

One Source for Online Training
To assist in disseminating timely HIM information, Intellis opened the IQ Center, the company’s education portal, to offer several free courses to all industry professionals. Intellis’ industry recognized SMEs Vice President of Education & Training Kim Felix, RHIA, CCS; Vice President of Clinical and Quality Services Allison Van Doren, RN, BSN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC; and Director of Education Jeanie Heck, BBA, CCS, CPC, CRC, present coding- and CDI-related updates based on AHIMA and CMS information (education.intellisIQ.com).

One Team for COVID-19 Education
As the health crisis evolves, Intellis experts presented COVID-19 coding and CDI webinars based on AHIMA and CMS information to 18 health organizations. The one-hour sessions focused on ICD-10-CM, MS-DRG, and IP CDI updates for inpatient settings, and ICD-10-CM, CPT/HCPCS/Telemedicine, and OP CDI updates for outpatient settings. Each presentation was followed with a Q&A session.

CoxHealth IP Coding Supervisor for HIM Dianne Pierce, RHIT, says, “I would like to thank the Intellis educators for providing thorough updated coding and clinical advice concerning the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. We had all of our IP and OP auditors and CDI Leadership attend at least one session and have included information we received in our policy which our coders are currently using.”

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Director of Coding and Validation Susan B. Cohen, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, wrote, “Thank you so much for offering these webinars. They are so well done, and the staff really appreciate learning. Keep them coming!”

As the crisis continues, Intellis is committed to education sharing and contributing to the HIM knowledge base. The COVID-19 online resource page, IQ Center courses, and webinars will continue to be updated as information evolves. Dates and times for updated webinars will be announced soon. Please contact info@intellisIQ.com for additional information.

Source: Intellis