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Home Health & Hospice Week

Regulations:

Beware These Other Oct. 1 Changes

Published on Sun Oct 05, 2003

V codes are not the only change taking place this month. In addition to payment increases (see related story, "V Codes Meltdown Looms, Experts Fear"), home health agencies will see these differences:

  • OASIS data. The OASIS Version 1.40 dataset became effective Oct. 1, and CMS says it will take a hard line on enforcement. After Oct. 1, records with a completion date (M0090) of Oct. 1 or later and submitted without the 1.40 data specs will be rejected immediately.

    HHAs could see serious survey problems as a result, warns consultant Melinda Gaboury of Nashville, TN-based Healthcare Provider Solutions. The conditions of participation require agencies to have a backup plan for submitting OASIS data if their software fails, she notes.

  • ICD-9 coding update. A host of new diagnosis codes took effect Oct. 1 (see pdf of Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 25, p. 197). ICD-9 codes are updated annually.

  • Medicare manuals. CMS is switching its program instructions over to an Internet-based manual system. As part of the initiative, providers won't see instructions in program memoranda any longer. Now, they can expect manual transmittals and/or new "one-time notifications" (see pdf of Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 34, p. 33, p. 262).

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