CCDS-O Exam Dumps - ACDIS Clinical Documentation Specialist Questions and Answers

Under CMS-HCC risk adjustment (commonly applied to Medicare Advantage), qualifying diagnoses must come from acceptable encounter/claim sources and eligible provider types. Hospital-based outpatient services (including a hospital ambulatory clinic) are among the standard, acceptable settings where diagnoses documented, coded, and submitted on qualifying encounters may be used for risk adjustment—assuming they are supported, assessed/managed, and submitted per program requirements. In contrast, certain facility claim types do not typically contribute to CMS-HCC capture in the same way. Hospice care is generally treated as a carve-out/unique payment environment and is not relied upon as a routine source of risk-adjusting diagnosis capture for the member’s ongoing RAF. Renal dialysis centers (ESRD facilities) likewise operate under specialized payment constructs and are not the typical outpatient setting used to drive CMS-HCC diagnosis capture for risk adjustment in standard CDI workflows. Freestanding ambulatory surgical centers also frequently fall outside the usual risk-adjustment-eligible encounter sources emphasized in outpatient CDI programs. Therefore, the hospital ambulatory clinic is the correct setting among these choices.

The documentation shows a patient with advanced COPD (GOLD stage 3) who now requires an increase in home oxygen to 3 liters, along with escalation of respiratory therapies (home nebulizers and systemic steroids). In outpatient CDI, an increased or ongoing home oxygen requirement is a strong clinical indicator that the provider may be managingchronic respiratory failure(or chronic hypoxemic respiratory failure), which is more clinically meaningful than simply documenting oxygen use as a status. “Oxygen dependence” is a status code and does not fully describe the underlying physiologic impairment driving the need for oxygen; chronic respiratory failure captures the severity and ongoing nature of the condition and better reflects risk, complexity, and medical necessity for durable oxygen therapy. Querying for pneumonia organism specificity is not as relevant in a follow-up visit unless pneumonia is still being actively treated and the organism is known. Querying COPD acuity (e.g., exacerbation) may be appropriate, but the most significant clarification prompted by increased home O2 is whether chronic respiratory failure is present and being managed.

The best query is chronic respiratory failure because home oxygen is a strong clinical indicator that often reflects an underlying chronic hypoxemic condition beyond uncomplicated COPD. Outpatient CDI guidance stresses that queries should be driven by present clinical indicators in the note and should seek clarification that impacts accurate diagnosis capture and ongoing care. Here, the provider documents COPD plus home oxygen and is arranging continued services (medication management and home health), which supports asking whether the patient has a reportable condition such as chronic respiratory failure with hypoxia (or COPD with chronic hypoxemia) and whether it is being monitored/managed. The other options lack support: acute blood loss anemia has no bleeding, hemodynamic instability, or acute findings; peripheral neuropathy is not assessed or described despite diabetes; and CKD has no labs, staging, history, or assessment. A compliant query would be non-leading and include the indicator (home O₂) and request the most accurate diagnosis and specificity/status.

In outpatient CDI and coding, the Official ICD-10-CM Guidelines that apply are the universal rules plus the outpatient-specific rules. Section I contains conventions, general coding guidelines, and chapter-specific guidance that govern code assignment in every setting (e.g., code structure, “use additional code,” laterality, sequencing instructions, and condition-specific rules). Section IV is specifically written for outpatient services and drives core outpatient behaviors such as selecting the “first-listed” diagnosis based on the main reason for the encounter, reporting additional diagnoses that are evaluated/assessed/treated or impact care, and applying outpatient-only restrictions (for example, diagnoses documented as “rule out,” “probable,” or “suspected” generally are not coded in outpatient the way they may be for inpatient reporting). ACDIS outpatient CDI education emphasizes teaching providers to document clearly the reason for visit, the assessment/clinical relevance of each condition addressed, and the linkage between conditions and services rendered so Section I and Section IV rules can be applied accurately for compliant reimbursement and reporting.

This query is non-compliant because it isleading: it asks the provider to “confirm a diagnosis of hemiplegia,” presenting only one targeted outcome rather than requesting clarification in a neutral, clinically appropriate way. ACDIS-aligned outpatient query practice requires queries to be compliant, non-leading, and supported by clinical indicators, typically offering multiple reasonable options (or an open-ended format) and allowing the provider to document the most accurate clinical impression. In this scenario, “history of CVA,” “left-sided weakness,” and “physical therapy ordered” could reflect several possibilities—such as hemiparesis, residual weakness, post-stroke deficits, deconditioning, or other neurologic impairment—so the query should ask the provider to clarify thenature and diagnosisof the deficit (and laterality), not to confirm a single diagnosis. Option A is incorrect because coding cannot assume hemiplegia without provider documentation. Option C is not the best feedback because indicators can justify clarification. Option D is unnecessary; MRI results are not required for a compliant outpatient query.

For reporting Evaluation and Management (E/M) services, the longstanding “key components” framework recognizeshistory, examination, and medical decision making (MDM)as the core elements used to determine the appropriate E/M level when the service is not reported based on time. In outpatient CDI education aligned with ACDIS concepts, MDM is emphasized because it reflects the clinician’s cognitive work and risk-based thinking: the complexity of problems addressed, the amount/complexity of data reviewed and analyzed (labs, imaging, external notes, independent interpretation), and the risk of complications and/or morbidity from additional testing or treatment. “Review of systems” is a sub-element of the history component, not a separate key component. “Nature of presenting problem” and “coordination of care” can be clinically relevant and may support medical necessity or time-based billing (when documented appropriately), but they are not one of the three key components that define E/M reporting structure. Therefore, the best answer is Medical decision making.

Under the Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS), hospital outpatient services are paid based on Ambulatory Payment Classifications (APCs). APCs are the mechanism that groups clinically similar services and procedures—typically identified through CPT/HCPCS reporting—into payment categories with established relative resource costs. CPT codes identify what service was performed, but CPT itself is not the OPPS payment grouping methodology; OPPS takes the coded line items and maps many of them into APC groupings (with packaging rules, status indicators, and modifier impacts) to determine the payment rate. DRGs are used for inpatient prospective payment and do not apply to OPPS outpatient claims in the same way. The Physician Fee Schedule applies to professional services (physician/clinician billing) rather than the hospital facility component paid under OPPS. From an outpatient CDI lens, accurate, specific documentation supports correct CPT/HCPCS selection, modifier use, units, and medical necessity linkages—ensuring services map to the correct APC and are not inappropriately bundled, denied, or downcoded during review. This protects payment accuracy and compliance by aligning the clinical story with the reported outpatient services.

In ambulatory CDI, “risk adjustment impact” means the clarification can change whether an HCC-relevant condition is captured accurately (or captured at all) based on ICD-10-CM reporting rules. Here, “DM2 with peripheral neuropathy with diabetic ulcer” already establishes diabeteswith complications, so querying option B adds little—complications are already documented. “Nicotine dependence” is not supported because the patient stopped smoking two years ago; at most, this supports a history of nicotine dependence, which generally does not drive HCC risk scoring. “Morbid obesity” may be clinically relevant (BMI 43 supports it), but obesity typically does not produce meaningful CMS-HCC risk adjustment impact compared with other chronic categories. Thediabetic ulcerdoes matter: correct reporting requires an additional L97.- code that depends onulcer severity/depth(skin breakdown, fat layer exposed, necrosis of muscle/bone). Clarifying depth supports accurate ulcer severity coding and can affect HCC capture/validation for chronic ulcer burden.

The documentation explicitly links the conditions by stating “Type 2 Diabetes with bilateral peripheral arteriosclerotic disease of LE,” which supports a diabetic circulatory manifestation rather than “diabetes without complications.” In outpatient CDI chart review, the word “with” and clear provider linkage allow coding of diabetes “with peripheral angiopathy” (a diabetes complication category) when peripheral arterial/arteriosclerotic disease is documented as associated. In addition, best practice is to code both the diabetes complication category and the specific manifestation when supported, because the manifestation (atherosclerosis of the lower extremities, bilateral) further describes the clinical condition being evaluated. Hypertension is also evaluated and managed (“well controlled on Lopressor”), meeting outpatient reporting expectations for an active condition addressed during the encounter. Option D is incorrect because it double-counts the same concept—peripheral angiopathy already represents a circulatory complication, so adding a separate “diabetes with circulatory complication” statement is redundant rather than additive. Therefore, the correct coding set includes diabetes with peripheral angiopathy, the bilateral lower-extremity atherosclerosis manifestation, and hypertension.

The documented indicators strongly support two clarification needs that affect accurate outpatient reporting. First,morbid obesityis supported by an objectiveBMI of 46, and outpatient CDI practice emphasizes ensuring obesity class is clearly documented as a diagnosis (not only implied by BMI) and that it is clinically relevant to care planning and risk (e.g., contributes to thrombotic risk, impacts treatment options). Second, the Doppler “indicates DVT,” but the record also notes ahistory of DVT, creating ambiguity aboutstatus—is this anacute new/recurrent DVT, achronic/residual thrombosis, or a prior condition now re-identified? Clarifying acuity/status is essential because it changes code selection and clinical severity representation and supports medical necessity for management decisions, especially given “contraindications to anticoagulation.” Hypertensive urgency is not supported (BP 142/88 without crisis features), and “hypercoagulability” is not established by the provided indicators. Therefore, querying for morbid obesity and DVT status is most appropriate.