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| Section | Weight | Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical Documentation Review & Query Practices | 20% | - Documentation gap identification and resolution - Query development, communication, and ethical standards - Concurrent and retrospective chart review methodologies |
| Quality, Risk Adjustment & Health Initiatives | 15% | - Risk adjustment models and documentation impact - Severity of Illness (SOI) / Risk of Mortality (ROM) - Quality reporting, public reporting, and compliance programs |
| Clinical Knowledge & Disease Processes Application | 20% | - Clinical indicators, lab results, medications, diagnostic findings - Disease processes across body systems applied to chart review - Medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology |
| Healthcare Regulations, Reimbursement & Documentation Requirements – IPPS | 15% | - Medicare Severity Diagnostic Related Groups (MS-DRGs) - Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) fundamentals - Documentation responsibilities of medical and clinical staff |
| Coding Guidelines & Official Reporting Standards | 15% | - Coding integrity and compliant documentation practices - ICD-10-CM/PCS Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting - AHIMA/ACDIS Guidelines for Compliant Query Practice |
| CDI Program Management & Professional Practice | 15% | - Ethics, HIPAA, and professional conduct - Provider education and training strategies - Program metrics, benchmarks, and performance measurement |
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NEW QUESTION # 87
Each MS-DRG has a relative weight (RW). RW is primarily associated with which of the following?
Answer: B
Explanation:
An MS-DRG relative weight is primarily a measure of relative resource consumption. CMS explains that each MS-DRG is assigned a payment weight representing the average resources required to treat cases in that MS- DRG relative to the average resources required for cases across all DRGs.
A relative weight greater than 1.0 generally represents a case group expected to consume more resources than the overall Medicare inpatient average, whereas a weight below 1.0 reflects comparatively lower expected resource utilization. CMS recalibrates MS-DRG relative weights periodically using national cost and claims information.
Severity of illness often correlates with resource consumption because clinically complex patients commonly require additional diagnostics, monitoring, interventions, medications, procedures, and length of stay.
Nevertheless, severity of illness is not itself the definition of relative weight.
Hospital quality measures are evaluated through separate quality programs. Likewise, an individual hospital's billed charges do not directly define the MS-DRG relative weight assigned nationally, although standardized cost and charge data contribute to CMS's broader methodology for recalibrating weights.
Understanding relative weight is essential for CDI because documentation affects code and MS-DRG assignment, while the MS-DRG's relative weight influences the standardized IPPS payment calculation.
CCDS Reference Topics: MS-DRG relative weight; IPPS methodology; resource utilization; reimbursement fundamentals.
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NEW QUESTION # 88
A CDI specialist identifies a diagnosis that would change the case from a lower-weight MS-DRG to a higher- weight MS-DRG. The medical record contains no clinical indicators supporting that diagnosis. What is the BEST action?
Answer: A
Explanation:
A query should not be issued solely because a diagnosis would increase reimbursement when the record contains no clinical basis for that diagnosis.
The 2026 ACDIS/AHIMA compliant-query guidance establishes that CDI clarification must be grounded in the patient's clinical record and directed toward ensuring accurate representation of clinical status. The updated guidance supersedes all previous versions and applies across CDI and coding environments.
Financial impact may occur as a consequence of accurate documentation, but it cannot be the clinical rationale for introducing an unsupported condition. A query containing a single unsupported diagnosis would also risk being leading or otherwise noncompliant.
Likewise, a coder cannot provisionally manufacture a diagnosis simply because it would affect the MS-DRG.
Code assignment depends on the documented clinical record and applicable coding conventions.
This principle applies equally in the opposite direction: if clarification could reduce reimbursement but is necessary to correct inaccurate, conflicting, or unsupported documentation, CDI should still pursue clarification. Effective CDI programs protect the integrity of the health record, not a predetermined financial outcome.
CCDS Reference Topics: Ethics; query compliance; clinical support; reimbursement neutrality; documentation integrity.
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NEW QUESTION # 89
Based on the AHIMA/ACDIS Practice Brief Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice, a leading query is one that:
Answer: A
Explanation:
A query becomes problematic when it directs or influences the provider toward a diagnosis that is not supported by the patient's clinical record. Therefore, option C most accurately represents the leading-query concept in this answer set. A compliant query must be based on patient-specific clinical indicators and must preserve the provider's independent clinical judgment.
A multiple-choice query may include a diagnosis not previously documented when that diagnosis is supported by the clinical indicators and when reasonable alternatives are also offered. ACDIS/AHIMA guidance has specifically recognized that presenting a clinically supported new diagnosis among neutral choices does not automatically make the query leading.
Likewise, the timing of a query while a provider is documenting does not make it leading. Cause-and-effect clarification may also be addressed using an appropriate query format when both conditions are documented and the relationship remains uncertain.
The current 2026 ACDIS/AHIMA Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice supersede the prior versions and continue to establish compliant provider-query practice as a foundational CDI standard. Queries must be clinically supported, noncoercive, and constructed without reference to reimbursement or other desired outcomes.
CCDS Reference Topics: Leading queries; clinical indicators; compliant query construction; provider independence.
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NEW QUESTION # 90
A pregnant patient is admitted at 30 weeks' gestation with acute pyelonephritis complicating pregnancy.
Which general sequencing principle applies?
Answer: C
Explanation:
ICD-10-CM Chapter 15 codes generally have sequencing priority over codes from other chapters when a condition complicates pregnancy, childbirth, or the puerperium.
Therefore, when pyelonephritis complicates pregnancy, the appropriate obstetric complication code is generally sequenced first, with additional code(s) used as instructed to identify the specific infection or organism.
This principle is important because ordinary principal-diagnosis logic can be modified by chapter-specific instructions. CDI specialists working with obstetric cases therefore must determine whether the pregnancy affects management and whether the condition is documented as complicating pregnancy.
The only major exception would be when the provider specifically determines that the pregnancy is incidental to the encounter and the applicable coding requirements for incidental pregnancy are met.
A symptom code does not generally supersede an established definitive diagnosis. Likewise, the fact that an infection could occur outside pregnancy does not negate Chapter 15 sequencing when it is complicating the pregnancy.
Correct gestational-age documentation is also important because an additional code may be required to identify the specific week of gestation.
CCDS Reference Topics: Obstetric coding; Chapter 15; sequencing priority; infection in pregnancy; principal diagnosis.
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NEW QUESTION # 91
Which of the following diagnoses is classified as a major complication/comorbidity (MCC) under the FY
2026 MS-DRG system?
Answer: A
Explanation:
Severe protein-calorie malnutrition is the correct answer. This question is adapted from an official CCDS sample question published by ACDIS.
Under the FY 2026 MS-DRG Definitions Manual, E43, unspecified severe protein-calorie malnutrition, is classified as an MCC. In contrast, moderate and mild protein-calorie malnutrition codes are classified as CCs rather than MCCs.
An MCC can materially affect MS-DRG assignment when the applicable DRG family differentiates cases by MCC status and when no exclusion or other grouper rule prevents the effect. However, the financial effect is never sufficient justification for a query. Documentation must be clinically supported and reflect the patient's actual condition.
A dietitian may document detailed nutrition findings and malnutrition criteria, but the reportable diagnosis ordinarily requires documentation by the provider responsible for establishing diagnoses. Therefore, when strong nutritional indicators exist but the provider has not documented malnutrition, a compliant query may be appropriate.
For CCDS preparation, candidates should understand both the clinical characteristics of malnutrition and its coding/reimbursement classification.
CCDS Reference Topics: MCCs; malnutrition; MS-DRG methodology; documentation requirements; IPPS.
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NEW QUESTION # 92
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