Home Health & Hospice Week

Using previous measurement as last resort.

For the first time since April 2016, Medicare has issued a set of OASIS questions-and-answers.

Previously, between January 2013 and October 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued Q&A sets every quarter. The newly posted set includes 11 Q&As, with the lion's share (four) focused on the one-clinician rule.

Question: Another question deals with recording a patient's weight. "In a situation where my patient is unable to be weighed, for example, when he has poor balance and can't stand safely by himself on the bathroom scale, may I use any actual weight obtained by myself or other agency staff on any visit within the 30 days prior to my assessment visit requiring M1060 Height and Weight? A Q&A from the HH QRP Provider Training says I should use 'a previous agency obtained weight from an M1060 reporting.'We often weigh our heart failure patients on routine visits throughout the episode.

Could I use a weight from one of those routine visits within the 30-day window that would be more current and relevant than the one from a SOC/ROC?" one agency asked.

Answer: "When there is an unsuccessful attempt to weigh a patient at SOC/ROC, and there is a documented agency-obtained weight from one or more previous home health visits, an agencyobtained weight from a documented visit conducted within the previous 30-day window may be used to complete M1060 for this SOC/ROC assessment," CMS allows. "However, it should be emphasized that whenever possible, a current weight should be obtained by the agency as part of the SOC/ROC assessment."

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice notes that "it is unclear if CMS intends to resume its previous practice of quarterly OASIS FAQs."

The Q&A set is available via a link on the QTSO website at https://qtso.cms.gov/hhatrain.html.