Physician Advisor - Strategic Quality Performance

Position Details

Lakeland Regional Health is a leading medical center located in Central Florida. With a legacy spanning over a century, we have been dedicated to serving our community with excellence in healthcare. As the only Level 2 Trauma center for Polk, Highlands, and Hardee counties, and the second busiest Emergency Department in the US, we are committed to providing high-quality care to our diverse patient population. Our facility is licensed for 910 beds and handles over 200,000 emergency room visits annually, along with 49,000 inpatient admissions, 21,000 surgical cases, 4,000 births, and 101,000 outpatient visits.

Lakeland Regional Health is currently seeking motivated individuals to join our team in various entry-level positions. Whether you're starting your career in healthcare or seeking new opportunities to make a difference, we have roles available across our primary and specialty clinics, urgent care centers, and upcoming standalone Emergency Department. With over 7,000 employees, Lakeland Regional Health offers a supportive work environment where you can thrive and grow professionally.

Work Hours per Biweekly Pay Period: 80.00

Shift:

Location: 1324 Lakeland Hills Blvd Lakeland, FL

Pay Rate: Min $161,200.00 Mid $215,300.80

Position Summary

The Physician Advisor serves as a liaison between the clinical document improvement (CDI) team, which includes hospital coders; members of the Hospital's administration; the Medical Staff of the hospital; and the hospital's Utilization Management to facilitate the development and implementation of clinical documentation improvement initiatives. The Physician Advisor is pivotal in leveraging his or her clinical position to demonstrate the association of care delivery with specificity in documentation. The Physician Advisor is responsible for conducting clinical reviews referred by the Utilization Management, Coding and Clinical Documentation Improvement departments. The Physician Advisor will assist with reviews and appeals of DRG and medical necessity denials.

Position Responsibilities

People At The Heart Of All We Do

• Fosters an inclusive and engaged environment through teamwork and collaboration.
• Ensures patients and families have the best possible experiences across the continuum of care.
• Communicates appropriately with patients, families, team members, and our community in a manner that treasures all people as uniquely created.

Stewardship

• Demonstrates responsible use of LRH's resources including people, finances, equipment and facilities.
• Knows and adheres to organizational and department policies and procedures.

Safety And Performance Improvement

• Behaves in a mindful manner focused on self, patient, visitor, and team safety.
• Demonstrates accountability and commitment to quality work.
• Participates actively in process improvement and adoption of standard work.

Supervisor/Team Lead Capabilities

• Demonstrates accountability for shift/team operations and care/service delivery to support achievement of organizational priorities.
• Coaches front line team members to support ongoing professional development and hardwire technical and professional capabilities.
• Creates a high performing team by building strong relationships, delegating work and nurturing commitment and engagement.
• Manages team conflict/issues implementing appropriate corrective actions, improvement plans and regular performance evaluations.
• Applies change management best practices and standard work to support departmental changes and ensure effective team transition.
• Promotes a healthy and safe culture to advance system, team and service experien

Standard Work: Physician Advisor

• Acts as a liaison between the CDI professionals, Health Information Management, and the hospital's medical staff to facilitate accurate and complete documentation for coding and abstracting of clinical data, capture of severity, acuity and risk of mortality, HCC/risk adjustment in addition to Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) assignment.
• Perform concurrent and retrospective reviews of selected health records as it pertains to CDI and coding validation, and participate in the development of clinically appropriate and compliant provider queries to further clarify documentation.
• Educates individual hospital staff physicians about International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding guidelines and clinical terminology to improve their understanding of severity, acuity, risk of mortality, HCC/risk adjustment and DRG assignments on their individual patient records.
• Assists with the evaluation and appeal of concurrent and restrospective denials and retrospective DRG downgrades. May perform peer-to-peer meetings as required.
• Participates in the coding and CDI programs and identifies potential areas for improved documentation of services. Also participates in the Coding and CDI meetings and provides ongoing education to the team members.
• Provides peer to peer communication to affect the appropriate response for those cases where the physician fails to respond or questions the need for queries.
• Responsible for writing and submitting appeals (multiple levels as needed) specifically around medical necessity, non-covered services, authorizations, and inpatient/observation stay related denials. May perform peer-to-peer meetings as required.
• The Physician Advisor is pivotal in leveraging his or her clinical position to demonstrate the association of care delivery with specificity in documentation through effective communication and education of the respective parties.
• Provides his or her expert opinion in relation to clinical validity assessments, and, furthermore, the development of clinically robust and appropriate queries.
• Serves as second level reviewer for UM, providing guidance on appropriate/alternate levels of care based on InterQual guidelines and other appropriate criteria.

Competencies & Skills

Essential:

• Broad knowledge base of clinical medicine across all specialties.
• Basic coding guidelines regarding the selection of the principal diagnosis and reporting additional diagnoses and procedures; understanding the DRG system; levels of comorbidities; and concepts of risk adjustment, severity of illness, risk of mortality, case mix index, prospective payment, hospital acquired conditions, patient safety indicators.
• Organize tasks effectively and efficiently and the ability to act independently through the application of critical thinking skills.
• Computer skills appropriate to position
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Qualifications & Experience

Essential:

• Medical Degree

Essential:

• Licensed to practice medicine in the state of Florida, shall be board certified in internal medicine, and shall meet any other reasonable professional criteria established by LRH or the hospital.

Other information:

Experience Essential:

- Minimum of two years of experience in conducting coding and CDI reviews.

- Knowledge of coding guidelines and how it translates from clinical documentation.

- Knowledge of DRGs, Risk of Mortality, Severity of Illness, Mortality Rate, HCC/risk adjustment, CMI and the impact of clinical documentation/coding in relation to these metrics.

- Excellent computer skills with prior exposure to use of Microsoft Office suite