Senior Director - HIM, Coding & CDI

Huron Consulting Services•Chicago, IL

15h

About The Position

Huron helps its clients drive growth, enhance performance and sustain leadership in the markets they serve. We help healthcare organizations build innovation capabilities and accelerate key growth initiatives, enabling organizations to own the future, instead of being disrupted by it. Together, we empower clients to create sustainable growth, optimize internal processes and deliver better consumer outcomes. Health systems, hospitals and medical clinics are under immense pressure to improve clinical outcomes and reduce the cost of providing patient care. Investing in new partnerships, clinical services and technology is not enough to create meaningful and substantive change. To succeed long-term, healthcare organizations must empower leaders, clinicians, employees, affiliates and communities to build cultures that foster innovation to achieve the best outcomes for patients. Joining the Huron team means you’ll help our clients evolve and adapt to the rapidly changing healthcare environment and optimize existing business operations, improve clinical outcomes, create a more consumer-centric healthcare experience, and drive physician, patient and employee engagement across the enterprise. Join our team as the expert you are now and create your future. The Senior Director, HIM, Coding & CDI provides enterprise leadership for health information management, coding, and clinical documentation integrity across a regional regional health system (4–5 hospitals, ~$2B net patient revenue), supporting acute care services only. This role is accountable for operational performance, regulatory compliance, quality outcomes, and financial integrity related to documentation and coding practices for acute inpatient services. The Senior Director balances strategic oversight with hands-on leadership to ensure consistent standards, scalable processes, and sustained performance across all facilities. The role partners closely with Revenue Cycle, Compliance, Quality, Case Management, and Clinical Leadership to support accurate clinical documentation, compliant coding, and optimized reimbursement while maintaining patient-centered and clinically aligned practices.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred (Health Information Management, Healthcare Administration, or related field).
8–10+ years of progressive experience in HIM, Coding, and/or CDI within an acute care or integrated health system.
Demonstrated leadership experience in a multi-hospital or system-level role.
Strong working knowledge of inpatient coding, CDI, regulatory requirements, and revenue integrity.
Ability to operate effectively in a lean, hands-on leadership environment.
RHIA
CCS or CCS-P preferred

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred (Health Information Management, Healthcare Administration, or related field).
CCS or CCS-P preferred

Responsibilities

Provide operational and strategic leadership for HIM, Coding, and CDI across all acute care facilities and employed physician practices, as applicable.
Establish and maintain consistent system-wide standards for documentation, coding, abstraction, and record integrity while allowing flexibility for local workflows.
Lead day-to-day operational performance with direct visibility into productivity, quality, turnaround times, denial trends, and documentation opportunities.
Serve as the primary escalation point for HIM, Coding, and CDI operational issues within the revenue cycle.
Ensure compliance with federal, state, and regulatory requirements (e.g., CMS, Joint Commission, state regulations, payer contracts).
Oversee internal and external audits related to coding, documentation, and record management; lead corrective action plans as needed.
Partner with Compliance and Legal teams to proactively identify and mitigate documentation or coding-related risk.
Monitor key performance indicators including DNFB, coding accuracy, CDI impact, case mix index (CMI), physician response rates, and denial prevention.
Analyze trends in revenue integrity, documentation quality, and coding outcomes; translate insights into targeted improvement initiatives.
Manage departmental budgets, staffing models, and vendor relationships appropriate for a mid-size system.
Collaborate closely with physicians, physician advisors, nursing leadership, and clinical teams to improve documentation quality and clinical clarity.
Support physician education programs focused on documentation integrity, severity of illness, and risk adjustment.
Act as a trusted partner to clinical leaders, emphasizing collaboration over enforcement in a smaller, relationship-driven environment.
Lead and develop managers, supervisors, and frontline team members across HIM, Coding, and CDI.
Design staffing and coverage models that balance cost, quality, and responsiveness within a smaller system footprint.
Build scalable training, onboarding, and competency programs to support cross-functional coverage and succession planning.
Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and professional development.
Develop and maintain policies, procedures, and standard work appropriate to system scale and complexity.
Lead process improvement initiatives to streamline workflows, reduce variation, and improve handoffs across the revenue cycle.
Use data and frontline feedback to continuously refine operating models without unnecessary bureaucracy.