MNHIMA Fall Coding Bootcamp — Three Hours of Focused Coding Education

Join MNHIMA for the 2026 Fall Coding Bootcamp—three hours of practical, focused coding education featuring experienced educators who will tackle challenging coding topics and provide guidance you can put into practice.

📅 Wednesday, October 21, 2026
⏰ 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM CT
💻 MNHIMA Fall Coding Bootcamp

Whether you work in coding, auditing, CDI, revenue cycle, or another area of health information, this bootcamp offers an opportunity to strengthen your skills, explore challenging coding scenarios, and learn alongside your Minnesota HIM colleagues.

Shelley Safian, PhD, RHIA, HCISPP, CCS-P, COC, CPC-I

Breathe Easier When Reporting Pneumonia and Influenza

Respiratory diagnosis coding can become challenging when documentation, pathogens, and coding guidelines all come into play. Dr. Shelley Safian will break down the coding process for pneumonia and influenza, review common coding challenges, and explore how provider documentation and coding guidelines can help determine the most accurate codes.

You’ll learn how to:

• Identify the specific pathogen needed to determine the appropriate code for pneumonia.
• Examine documentation for the details required to select the correct code for influenza.

Dr. Safian has taught Health Care Administration, Health Information/Informatics Management, and Medical Billing and Coding for 25 years. She is the author of eight textbooks, including Let’s Code It! 2026 and You Code It! 2026, and brings extensive experience in HIM, coding, privacy, security, and education.

Leigh Poland | AGS Health

Open, Closed, Excision, Resection, or Bypass? Demystifying ICD-10-PCS for Abdominal Procedures

Abdominal surgeries can sometimes feel like a PCS maze. Is it a resection or an excision? Was that exploratory laparotomy separately reportable? When does a lysis of adhesions count as a coded procedure?

Leigh Poland will break down the complexities of coding abdominal surgeries with a focus on root operations, approach, and documentation requirements. Through case-based examples, attendees will explore common general surgery procedures, including appendectomies, bowel resections, exploratory laparotomies, and drain placements.

You’ll learn how to:

• Accurately apply ICD-10-PCS root operations for GI and abdominal procedures, including Excision, Resection, Drainage, and Repair.
• Distinguish between incidental procedures, such as adhesiolysis, and reportable interventions.
• Determine when to assign codes for exploratory laparotomy, drain placement, or repair after resection.
• Identify documentation needed to support the correct body part, approach, and qualifier selections.
• Recognize opportunities for provider education and query improvement in abdominal surgical documentation.

Leigh brings more than 30 years of revenue cycle management experience and 25 years of coding and education experience. She has presented at AHIMA, ACDIS, and AAPC national conventions and is responsible for continuous coding education and certification preparatory programs supporting more than 4,500 coders.

Barb Miller, RHIT, CCS, CCS-P

AHIMA-Approved Revenue Cycle Trainer | AHIMA-Approved ICD-10-CM Trainer
AHIMA Microcredentials: Risk Adjustment Coding & Auditing: Inpatient Coding

Mastering the Details: Accurate Stroke Diagnosis Coding & Documentation Integrity

Accurate stroke diagnosis coding requires careful attention to clinical documentation, coding guidelines, and compliance requirements. This session examines the critical role documentation plays in supporting compliant and accurate diagnosis coding for cerebrovascular events.

With recent OIG audit findings placing increased scrutiny on acute stroke diagnoses, Barb will help attendees review clinical definitions, ICD-10-CM guidelines, and the documentation criteria needed to support acute, past, and related cerebrovascular conditions.

You’ll learn how to:

• Review recent OIG audit findings and understand why acute stroke diagnoses face increased scrutiny.
• Differentiate cerebrovascular accident classifications, including ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, and identify the clinical documentation needed to support coding.
• Accurately identify and report associated diagnoses, underlying etiologies, and related acute manifestations.
• Apply coding guidelines to distinguish active neurological deficits and sequelae from a personal history of stroke.

Barb is a Senior Inpatient Coder with 30 years of experience across inpatient, outpatient, professional service, trauma, and pediatric coding. Her background also includes auditing, mid-revenue cycle integrity, NCCI edits, and inpatient and outpatient denials. She is an AHIMA-Approved Revenue Cycle Trainer and AHIMA-Approved ICD-10-CM Trainer and has earned AHIMA microcredentials in Risk Adjustment Coding and Auditing: Inpatient Coding.

Three Speakers. Three Important Coding Topics. One Morning.

From pneumonia and influenza to complex abdominal procedures to stroke diagnosis coding and documentation integrity, the MNHIMA Fall Coding Symposium brings together three timely topics designed to strengthen your coding knowledge and help you navigate complex situations with greater confidence and accuracy.

Join us Wednesday, October 21, from 10:00 AM–1:00 PM CT.

Save the date and plan to spend the morning learning with MNHIMA!