Home Health & Hospice Week

It may be later than you like, but you can now access Medicare OASIS C training online.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has posted four OASIS C training sessions on youtube, CMS's Robin Dowell said in the Dec. 1 Open Door Forum for home care providers. The sessions focus on process-based quality improvement (PBQI) measures; the intervention synopsis (M2400); the plan of care synopsis (M2250); and the falls risk assessment (M1910).

The four videos total about 1.5 hours of training time, Dowell told forum attendees. You can find them by searching for "OASIS C process items" at youtube.com, or web addresses for the sessions are on CMS's site at www.cms.gov/HomeHealthQualityInits/05_HHQISpotlight.asp.

Plus: Get ready for a new version of the OASIS C Guidance Manual. CMS is updating the manual with the errata sheets it's issued this year, plus information from nearly 80 question-andanswer sets, Dowell said.

CMS hopes to issue the updated manual by the end of the month, Dowell reported.

Other issues addressed in the forum include:

• Date stamping. Don't expect to get much traction with the argument "we've always done it" for date stamping physician signatures. When one home care provider questioned why CMS is no longer allowing date stamping of physician signatures, CMS's Lori Anderson stated that such an allowance went against "longstanding manual guidance."

Physicians will be required to date their own signatures starting with claims dated Jan. 1, says regional home health intermediary Cahaba GBA (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 42, p. 332).

• Audits. Don't think you're being singled out if you're receiving more prepayment audits from Medicare contractors. "There certainly is an increase in some of our oversight efforts," Anderson said in response to a question about increased additional development requests for prepay audits.

• Time's almost up for 2009 claims. Claims from October 2008 to December 2009 must be submitted by Dec. 31, 2010 under new Medicare timely filing rules, CMS reminded providers in the forum. Starting with claims dated Jan. 1, 2010, you'll have 12 months to complete submission.