Home Health & Hospice Week

Take a good hard look at your clinical processes soon to avoid last-minute pressure. You’ve got about a year before OASIS-C is scheduled to begin, but you’ll be scrambling to comply with the new form unless you begin getting ready now. In November, the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services issued its latest draft of the OASIS retool. The new form for home health agencies makes widespread changes, including the addition of numerous process-based items (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XVII, No. 42, p. 330). The new start of care form under OASIS-C will have 105 M0 items, compared to the current 76, CMS points out. The form is likely to undergo some tweaks before CMS issues the final version later this year,but agencies can expect the basic structure to stay the same, experts predict. You can start some of the most time-consuming parts of OASIS-C preparation now, advised Chicago-based regulatory consultant [...]