Home Health & Hospice Week

Train staff, but keep errors in mind.

Be sure you've downloaded the update to the OASIS User's Manual, but don't spend time and money printing and distributing copies just yet.

"After reviewing the posted file, we identified and reported about a dozen errors and a few requests for reconsideration to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services," Linda Krulish of Redmond, WA-based OASIS Answers tells Eli.

Forthcoming: The federal agency has indicated that they will issue a revised version of Chapter 8 by late September, correcting the errors, says Krulish.

Soon after the release of the June update to the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) User's Manual in August, CMS itself identified errors relating to M0245 (Payment diagnosis) and M0175 (Inpatient facilities during past 14 days).

Additional errors identified by Krulish and others are minor in comparison. Still, HHAs should use common sense in attempts to implement the revisions, pending CMS' corrections.

Case in point: Always code to the highest specificity when dealing with diagnosis coding, advises Lisa Selman-Holman, principal of Selman-Holman & Associates in Denton, TX.

The revised guidance for item M0210 (Medical diagnosis) reverts back to the outdated "three digits required, five optional" instructions, Selman-Holman notes. That's a mistake, she says.

Clarification: In training your staff on the manual changes, don't miss the new directive for M0150 (Payment source). This change refocuses the intent of M0150 to identifying payers to which any services provided during the home care episode and included on the plan of care will be billed by your agency, Krulish says. No longer consider any equipment, medications, or supplies being paid for by the patient, she explains.

Note: Check for OASIS manual corrections and further updates at www.cms.hhs.gov/OASIS/05_UserManual.asp#TopOfPage.