Home Health & Hospice Week

Mark your calendars for training on the newly finalized OASIS-C1 tool.

It’s time to move OASIS-C1 up on your priority list, now that the implementation deadline is only about six months away. The Centers for Medi-care & Medicaid Services seems to agree, since it has finalized the OASIS-C1 form and scheduled a training conference on the significantly revised patient assessment tool.

The Office of Management and Budget gave its stamp of approval to the form Feb. 6, noted CMS’s Caroline Gallaher in the March 5 Open Door Forum for home care providers. The form has a three-year approval period that will expire in February 2017.

And CMS will help you get ready to use the form with a 90-minute April 30 webinar at 2 p.m. ET, added CMS’s Pat Sevast in the forum. The session will cover the new OASIS-C1 dataset and its Oct. 1 implementation, the types of changes made to dataset, OASIS-C1 guidance manual changes, and updates to the OASIS questions and answers, Sevast shared with listeners.

Tip: CMS is reserving only 1,000 lines for the webinar and they are on a first-come, first-served basis, Sevast said. If you want to be sure to get a spot, she advised calling in 15 minutes before the webinar’s start time. You’ll have to wait a while if you don’t make this session — it will take up to four weeks for CMS to post a replay of the webinar, a CMS source tells Eli.

Resource: You can also purchase a recording or transcript of OASIS expert Judy Adam’s Eli-sponsored audioconference, “OASIS-C1 and Process Outcome Changes,” at www.audioeducator.com/ home-health/oasis-c-1-2014-01-22-14.html or by calling 1-866-458-2965.

CMS expects to post the OASIS-C1 Guidance Manual two weeks before the webinar, Sevast revealed. “We want to give people a chance to look at the manual and come up with questions,” she said in the forum. Then they can submit questions via CMS’s existing OASIS mailbox at cms oasisquestions@oasisanswers.com, which CMS officials may address in the presentation. Agency officials won’t take live questions during the event because they want to research the answers to them before responding, she indicated.

Prepare For New OASIS 

Data Submission System

You won’t just be saying good-bye to the OASIS C form this fall, but also your avenue for submitting OASIS data. Starting Sept. 26, you’ll submit your OASIS data via CMS’s new national server, the Assessment Submission and Processing (ASAP) system, instead of your state server, explained CMS’s Kimberlie Jasmin in the forum. J-HAVEN, which includes JAVA, will replace the current HAVEN tool.

Home health agencies must use data specification version 2.10.0 for OASIS C records with a M0090 date before Oct. 1, 2014, Jasmin instructed. These records use the ICD-9 codes. HHAs must use version 2.11.0 data specs for OASIS-C1 records with a M0090 date on or after Oct.1, which will include ICD-10 codes.

CMS developed new data submission specs to support the new ASAP system, Jasmin said. She urged agencies to read through the specs document carefully, since there are substantial changes.

Note: CMS will post the approved OASIS form on its forthcoming OASIS-C1 website, a CMS source tells Eli.In the meantime, you can look at the form OMB approved at www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/PaperworkReductionActof1995/PRA-Listing-Items/CMS-R-245.html?DLPage=1&DLFilter=OASIS&DLSort=1&DLSortDir=descending in a zip file. There are no changes to the final form, Gallaher said. Or you can e-mail editor Rebecca Johnson at rebeccaj@eliresearch.com with “OASIS-C1” in the subject line for a free PDF copy and link to the tool. 

You’ll be able to view the webinar at https://webinar.cms.hhs.gov/oasisc1. View the new data specs at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/OASIS/DataSpecifications.html. 

For more in-depth coverage of OASIS-C1 as the deadline for the new assessment tool approaches, subscribe to Eli’s OASIS Alert at www.aapc.com/codes/coding-newsletters/my-oasis-alert.