Home Health & Hospice Week

And expect a new diagnosis item.

To support the newly finalized quality measure on worsening pressure ulcers (see story, this page), you'll need to get used to some OASIS changes.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn’t reference the M item changes directly in the 2016 HH PPS final rule, but the agency spells out the details — including renumbering M1308 and M1309 — in a draft of the changes at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/Downloads/OASIS-January_2017_July2015.pdf.

“We plan to issue new guidance on these items, as part of the update to the OASIS manual, well in advance of their implementation, and to provide further support through training and other education materials,” CMS says about M1308 and M1309 in the rule.

Plus: CMS plans to add an M item on “Active Diagnoses.” The new M item would ask for active diagnoses in the last seven days and instruct agencies to check one or both boxes that apply: “1 — Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) or Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD)” and/or “2 — Diabetes Mellitus (DM) (e.g., diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropath).” The item includes the instruction that “Diagnoses listed in parentheses are provided as examples and should not be considered as all-inclusive lists.”

“We will consider expanding the items referencing active diagnoses and better clarifying whether items are referencing new diagnoses or symptomology of a disease,” CMS said in the final rule, in response to a comment letter.