Home Health & Hospice Week
Instruction To Surveyors Should Confirm OASIS SInstruction To Surveyors Should Confirm OASIS Suspension Dateuspension Date
Call your CMS regional office if surveyors try to stick it to you on private-pay OASIS. So indicates the new Medicare law signed by President Bush Dec. 8 (see story, p. 347). Section 704 of the law specifies that the Department of Health and Human Services can't require home health agencies to collect or transmit OASIS data for non-Medicare, non-Medicaid patients until two months after HHS completes a study on the data's usefulness compared to its administrative burden. Since the HHS report isn't due for 18 months, according to the law, agencies likely have 20 months before they have to worry about resuming private-pay OASIS data collection. "It's going to be a while I think before that requirement is resurrected," a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official said in the Dec. 3 Open Door Forum for home health. And it might not be taken back up at all. If the report finds the cost of collecting and transmitting the data outweighs its benefits, the requirement will be gone for good. Passage of the law is easing HHAs' fears that the OASIS suspension hasn't really taken effect yet (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 43, p. 340). But the clincher will be a letter from CMS to state survey agencies, informing them of the change. The letter was slated to go out Dec. 11, according to CMS officials speaking in the forum, which drew almost 350 callers and in-person attendees. But at press time, it hadn't yet been released. The effective date for the suspension was Nov. 5, and agencies that encounter surveyors trying to enforce private-pay OASIS data collection after that date should call their CMS regional office for back-up, CMS officials instructed in the forum. HHAs that want to continue collecting OASIS data for non-Medicare, non-Medicaid patients will be free to do so, the letter also will explain. Other HHA issues covered in the forum include: Editor's Note: To receive call-in information and reminders for the forums, sign up at www.cms.gov/opendoor/homehealth%2Dhospice.asp.
The requirement to collect OASIS data for private-pay patients shouldn't reappear on agencies' to-do lists for almost two years - and it might never rear its head again.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Reimbursement:
MedPAC Pegs HHA Profit Margin At 17%
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Providers Win Regulatory Relief In Medicare Bill
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Regulatory Reform Carries Negatives
Not all of the items passed in the "Regulatory Reform" section of the newly enacted [...] - Regulations:
Suppliers Want CMS To Forget Anniversary Date Change
Tracking DME patients' hospital stays is nearly impossible. A reimbursement change touted as helping suppliers [...] - Regulations:
Instruction To Surveyors Should Confirm OASIS SInstruction To Surveyors Should Confirm OASIS Suspension Dateuspension Date
Call your CMS regional office if surveyors try to stick it to you on private-pay [...] - Fraud & Abuse:
Beware Hiring Excluded Providers
The going remains tough for health care providers who rub Medicare and Medicaid fraud fighters [...] - Industry Notes:
Home Care No Place For For-Profits, Survey Says
Non-profits preferred by public Most of the public doesn't think health care should be a [...]
