Home Health & Hospice Week

If you don't start submitting OASIS data in a new format by Oct. 1, you'll see rejected OASIS records right and left. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued the final data specifications for OASIS 1.40, the new OASIS version that takes effect Oct. 1. "All assessment records with completion dates (M0090) on or after 10/1/2003 must conform to the version 1.40 specifications," CMS instructs on its OASIS Web site. "Assessments with earlier completion dates must conform to the version 1.30 specifications (or to earlier versions, as appropriate)." The final specs have two changes from the draft specs put out in April, CMS notes. A clarification of the implementation requirements and a change to consistency checks were added. Version 1.40 incorporates two major new features compared to previous versions: changes to diagnosis code reporting and the addition of branch identification number reporting, CMS notes.  The final specs are at www.cms.hhs.gov/oasis/datasubm.asp. Regional home health intermediary Palmetto GBA has lifted the time limit on viewing partial episode payment adjustments, it says on its Web site. Home health agencies now may view PEPs for the entire duration of the two-year PEP recovery process, instead of only through July 28 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 26, p. 202). The claims will move out of the SM PEP1 status/location as they are processed, so Palmetto recommends printing out a copy of the adjustment listing now. Six law firms have filed a class action shareholder lawsuit against Polymedica Corp., the parent company of Liberty Home Medical and Liberty Home Pharmacy, which provide diabetes supplies and home respiratory medications and supplies, respectively, through the mail. The suit charges that Polymedica overstated earnings through accounting tricks involving advertising costs. Polymedica announced June 30, after discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that it may have to restate earnings due to the matter. RHHIs no longer have to perform tentative cost settlements on home health cost reports that have no direct reimbursement impact, CMS says in July 25 program memorandum A-03-061. If HHAs claim costs outside of the prospective payment system including bad debt expense, however, a tentative settlement still is required. Intermediaries "must continue to final settle these cost reports within one year from the cost report acceptance date if the cost report is not scheduled for audit or focus review," CMS notes. CMS' guidance on compliance with the HIPAA electronic transactions standard doesn't establish a formal, gradual compliance phase-in period, as many provider groups hoped for. But the guidance does show CMS plans to treat HIPAA transaction noncompliance gingerly, at least at first. The July 24 document says CMS' enforcement efforts will be complaint-driven - much like the HHS Office for Civil Rights' approach to HIPAA privacy violations - and will [...]