Home Health & Hospice Week

CMS plans OASIS-D educational sessions.

The wait is over — mostly. Medicare has released the guidance manual for the significant OASIS changes that are coming Jan. 1.

Reminder: Back in March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its draft form for OASIS-D (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVII, No. 12). “This OASIS version reflects the removal of 75 data elements from the OASIS at the time point SOC, 75 data elements at the time point ROC, 20 data elements at the time point FU, 42 data elements at the time point TOC, 1 data element at the time point DAH, and 34 data elements at the time point DC, relative to the previous version,” CMS said in its Paperwork Reduction Act materials. “As a net result of the policies finalized in the CY 2018 final rule, we also added data elements to meet the requirements of the IMPACT Act. Consequently, the net items removed include 38 data elements at SOC, 38 data elements at ROC, 2 data elements at FU, 38 data elements at TOC and 9 data elements at Discharge.”

The changes included in OASIS-D are:

• a significantly expanded GG0170 (Mobility) item;
• three new GG items, GG0100 (Prior Functioning: Everyday Activities) converting over from the current M1900: Prior Function; GG0110 (Prior Device Use); and GG0130 Self-Care; and
• two added items in Section J: Health Conditions, J1800(Any Falls Since SOC/ROC, whichever is more recent) and J1900 (Number of Falls since SOC/ROC, whichever is more recent).

Many of the dropped items were simple, straightforward ones and many of the added items are complex and will be confusing and time-consuming, experts warn.

CMS is merely waiting on Office of Management and Budget approval to finalize the OASISD form and manual, an agency official said in Medicare’s July 11 Home Health Open Door Forum. That’s expected to happen by November.

Meanwhile, CMS plans to kick off its education efforts for the OASIS revamp next month. The agency will offer an Aug. 28 webinar providing an overview of the OASIS-D changes, and a Sept. 5 webinar focusing on new quality measures and data collection items associated with Section GG changes.

Be quick: Registration for each webinar is limited to 1,500 participants, the CMS staffer said. You can register for them now via links online at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/Home-Health-Quality-Reporting-Training.html.

Note: See the manual at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/Downloads/draft-OASIS-D-Guidance-Manual-7-2-2018.pdf.