Documentation Integrity Specialist V, Clinical Licensure

Kaiser Permanente International; Oakland (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA is seeking a Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) leader to manage reviews of medical records, assign DRGs, and guide codes to ensure accurate diagnoses. You will oversee CDI program integrity, compliance with federal regulations, and staff education to support quality documentation.

The role requires experience in acute care or clinical settings, leadership responsibilities, and expertise in CDI and coding guidelines.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of clinical documentation improvement (CDI) processes and terminology.
• Experience leading trainings and cross-functional collaboration.
• Understanding of regulatory auditing and documentation standards.

Responsibilities

• Promotes learning and builds cross-functional relationships to drive projects.
• Leads or oversees business-specific CDI projects and assigns resources.
• Performs clinical documentation reviews and guides providers to address omissions.
• Implements improvements to CDI programs and processes.
• Leads staff trainings on CDI and coordinates with leadership on education initiatives.
• Ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and supports audits.

Skills

Information Gathering

Written Communication

Compliance Management

Confidentiality

Health Care Compliance

Record Keeping

Relationship Building

Coordination

Service Focus

Autonomy

Disease Classification

Medical Terminology

Quality Assurance

Quality Improvement

Education

Bachelor's degree in Nursing, Medicine, Health Administration, Health Information Management, or related field

Ten years of nursing/medicine/CDI/inpatient coding/quality review/case management, or related field

Tools

Epic Systems

Job description

Job Summary:

Reviews a large caseload of medical/health records to promote the accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation and assigns medical codes and diagnostics-related groups (DRGs) to facilitate the accurate capture of diagnoses, and provides guidance on the use of appropriate codes as needed. Assists in enhancing the clinical documentation improvement/integrity (CDI) program by reviewing and integrating processes to improve the accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation and documentation issue resolution. Ensures regulatory compliance by aiding audits, reviewing clinical documentation, and reporting cases of non-compliance in line with coding guidelines and federal regulations. Leads staff trainings and education on clinical documentation improvement (e.g., medical review and coding, quality standards, documentation requirements for diagnosis capture).

Essential Responsibilities:

• Promotes learning in others by communicating information and providing advice to drive projects forward; builds relationships with cross-functional stakeholders. Listens, responds to, seeks, and addresses performance feedback; provides actionable feedback to others, including upward feedback to leadership and mentors junior team members. Practices self-leadership; creates and executes plans to capitalize on strengths and improve opportunity areas; influences team members within assigned team or unit. Adapts to competing demands and new responsibilities; adapts to and learns from change, challenges, and feedback. Models team collaboration within and across teams.
• Conducts or oversees business-specific projects by applying deep expertise in subject area; promotes adherence to all procedures and policies. Partners internally and externally to make effective business decisions; determines and carries out processes and methodologies; solves complex problems; escalates high-priority issues or risks, as appropriate; monitors progress and results. Develops work plans to meet business priorities and deadlines; coordinates and delegates resources to accomplish organizational goals. Recognizes and capitalizes on improvement opportunities; evaluates recommendations made; influences the completion of project tasks by others.
• Performs clinical documentation reviews by: reviewing a large caseload of medical/health records to promote the accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation and capturing results of review; summarizing results of a large caseload of medical record reviews and guiding medical providers to rectify identified omissions or contradictions in medical records; assigning medical codes and diagnostics-related groups (DRGs) to facilitate the accurate capture of diagnoses and providing guidance on use of appropriate codes as needed; working with medical providers to identify the presence of medical conditions that impact severity of illness (SOI) and risk of mortality (ROM) indicators; and creating and monitoring documentation clarification queries to facilitate efficient resolution of open queries.
• Conducts processes to improve clinical documentation by: conducting reviews of the clinical documentation improvement/integrity (CDI) program to ensure processes are effectively improving the accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation and documentation issue resolution; identifying improvement opportunities in clinical review and documentation processes; and recommending opportunities for improvement related to clinical documentation and promoting the implementation of documentation improvement initiatives.
• Leads staff training and education by: leading and/or assisting trainings on CDI (e.g., medical review and coding, quality standards, documentation requirements for diagnosis capture); and identifying opportunities and collaborating with leadership to develop programs for clinical documentation education/training.
• Ensures regulatory compliance by: ensuring reviews are completed and documented in line with regulatory requirements; reviewing clinical documentation to facilitate the audit process to support compliance with coding guidelines and federal regulations; reporting cases of non-compliance; and independently identifying needs and opportunities to maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant regulations and sharing opportunities with team members.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum five (5) years of experience in an inpatient acute care or clinical setting.
• Minimum three (3) years of experience in a leadership role with or without direct reports.
• Minimum three (3) years of experience in clinical documentation improvement or integrity.
• Bachelors degree in Nursing, Medicine, Health Administration, Health Information Management, or related field AND minimum seven (7) years experience in nursing, medicine, CDI, inpatient coding, quality review, case management, or a directly related field OR Minimum ten (10) years of experience in nursing, medicine, CDI, inpatient coding, quality review, case management, or a directly related field.

• Doctor of Medicine License (California) required at hire OR Registered Nurse License (California) required at hire OR Physician Assistant License (California) required at hire OR Nurse Practitioner Certificate (California) required at hire

Additional Requirements:

• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): Information Gathering; Written Communication; Compliance Management; Confidentiality; Health Care Compliance; Maintain Files and Records; Relationship Building; Coordination; Service Focus; Autonomy; Disease Classification; Medical Terminology; Employee and Physician Safety; Quality Assurance and Effectiveness; Execution Excellence; Health Care Quality Standards; Quality Improvement

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certified Clinical Documentation Specialist Credential (CCDS) from the Association of Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialists (ACDIS) OR Certified Documentation Improvement Practitioner (CDIP), Certified Coding Specialist (CCS), Certified Coding Specialist Physician-based (CCS-P), Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA), OR Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) from the American Health Information Management Association.
• Three (3) years of experience using Epic System software OR other Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.