You could be using the new assessment within 18 months.
An even newer version of the changes to the OASIS dataset is out and open for comment.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a new version of the OASIS-C in the Oct. 19 Federal Register. (The current OASIS version in use is OASIS-B1).
Back in July CMS released its first version of the significantly revamped OASIS document. The changes include the addition of 30 process-based measures on items like vaccinations and prevention programs (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 28).
"When these things get posted, please look at them and comment," urged CMS' Pat Sevast at the OASIS Certificate and Competency Board's first annual conference in Baltimore Nov. 12. Sevast exhibited a seven-page list of changes made between the first and second versions.
The latest version released Oct. 19 is available at
www.cms.hhs.gov/PaperworkReductionActof1995 --search for CMS-10238 and disregard the 7/27/2007 date listed on the initial page.
But if you haven't commented yet, it may be too late for this round's feedback, which is due Nov. 19 at 5 pm. CMS hopes to implement the new OASIS in mid-2009, Sevast said. • The feds are getting an earful about the shortcomings of a recent report comparing Medicare reimbursement for power wheelchairs to the prices charged by Internet-based suppliers.
The report (OEI-04-07-00160) was released by the Office of Inspector General this month (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 39).
The American Association for Homecare joined the Power Mobility Coalition and others in condemning the report for comparing "apples to oranges."
"We firmly maintain that the cost of acquiring power wheelchairs used by Medicare beneficiaries through the Internet does not in any way compare to the cost of providing these devices to Medicare beneficiaries adhering to the appropriate standards of care," said AAHomecare president Tyler Wilson in letters to the OIG's Daniel Levinson and Pete Stark (D-CA), who chairs the House Ways & Means Committee's Subcom-mittee on Health. • Members of Congress continue to hammer away at a Medicare legislative package for 2008, and that's leaving home care providers very nervous.
Representatives from the National Association for Home Care & Hospice and various state trade groups as well as providers lobbied both Houses of Congress on Nov. 9. They urged avoiding home care cuts and averting the 2.75 percent cut due to supposed case mix creep next year.
A number of home health agencies pleaded their case before congressional staffers, giving examples of the harm done by the coming cut, NAHC reports.
Carolina East Home Care & Hospice will have $289 less per patient in Medicare reimbursement under 2008 rates compared to this year, director Lynn Hardy told separate House and Senate briefings. And the Visiting Nurse Association of [...]
