Home Health & Hospice Week

Will wording changes reduce common errors?

In addition to item deletions in the new OASIS-C1/ICD-9 form, CMS has taken the opportunity to simplify and clarify responses and guidance throughout the data collection tool.

When the new tool takes effect Jan. 1, many familiar items will sport new wording in OASIS-C1/ICD-9. Highlights include:

• Replacing the Latin “e.g.” with the more familiar English terminology “for example.” “We’re hopeful this will help clinicians think more broadly about certain questions where we commonly find errors,” says OASIS expert Beth Johnson with Johnson, Richards, & Associates in Brighton, Mich.

• Removing the word “non-epithelialized” from the title of M1307: The Oldest Stage II Pressure Ulcer that is present at discharge. This item also sees the added instruction “(Excludes healed Stage II Pressure Ulcers).” And the “NA” option reads “No Stage II pressure ulcers are present at discharge.”

• Removing the second column of M1308: Current number of unhealed pressure ulcers at each stage or Unstageable. Removing the second column of this item “eliminates all the confusion,” says nurse consultant Lynda Laff with Laff Associates in Hilton Head Island, S.C. This item has also been split into two items with the addition of M1309: Worsening in pressure ulcer status since SOC/ROC.

• Removing response “0”— Newly epithelialized” from M1334: Status of most problematic stasis ulcer that is observable. This response was an error and needed to be corrected since stasis ulcers, once epithelialized, are healed — gone, says attorney Lisa Selman-Holman with Selman-Holman & Associates and CoDR — Coding Done Right in Denton, Texas.

Note: For more information about OASIS-C1, subscribe to Eli’s Home Health Coding and OASIS Expert at https://www.aapc.com/codes/.