Home Health & Hospice Week

Here’s when to use dashes — and when not to.

With OASIS-E implementation looming on Jan. 1, now’s a good time to pay closer attention to Medicare’s quarterly OASIS Frequently Asked Questions.

Case in point: In its July FAQs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has changed guidance it handed down just two months ago regarding D0150/D0160. “At times, CMS provides new or refined instruction that supersedes previously published guidance. In such cases, use the most recent guidance,” the agency instructs in the new FAQs. “Note that this guidance supersedes instruction provided in the draft OASIS-E Guidance Manual, posted May 2022. Use this more recent guidance when implementing OASIS-E in January 2023,” CMS tells agencies.

The FAQ at issue is:

Question: My agency forgot to complete the Patient Mood Interview when completing the patient’s Discharge assessment. How should D0150 — Patient Mood Interview (PHQ-2 to 9) and D0160 — Total Severity Score be coded? What if the agency only missed asking 1 of the symptom presence (Column 1 of D0150) questions?

Answer: When the agency misses asking the patient one or more of the symptom presence questions from D0150 — Patient Mood Interview (PHQ-2 to 9) code Column 1: Symptom Presence with a dash (–) and leave Column 2: Symptom Frequency blank. If no assessment is conducted for Symptom Presence, enter a dash (–) in Column 1 and skip Column 2 in each row of D0150A-I, then code 99 for D0160 — Total Severity Score. A dash (–) is a valid response for D0150 Column 1: Symptom Presence. A dash (–) is not a valid response for D0150 Column 2: Symptom Frequency or D0160 — Total Severity Score. 

Note: The FAQs are at https://qtso.cms.gov/system/files/ qtso/508_CMS_OAI_2nd_Qtr_2022_QAs_July_2022_ final_0.pdf.