Home Health Coding and OASIS Expert

Save the nitty gritty for later in the year.

Home health agencies who want to prepare for the next version of the OASIS will have to wait a while for the full story.

The tool CMS released on Dec. 22 provides only some of the information necessary for OASIS-C2 completion. CMS plans to issue “specific guidance … in the OASIS guidance manual, which we intend to release next summer,” a CMS official tells Eli.

All the same, giving your clinicians a heads up now that a new OASIS form is on the way may be a good idea, advises consultant Cindy Krafft, PT, MS, with Kornetti & Krafft Health Care Solutions.

Agencies can “at least review the changes and new items in the OASIS-C2 form within the next few weeks,” offers nurse Judy Adams, RN, BSN, HCS-D, HCS-O, AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM Trainer, with Adams Home Care Consulting in Asheville, N.C.

But Krafft recommends holding off on specific item training until CMS issues its manual. This will “limit the chance of error in providing the instruction,” notes Krafft, who is a physical therapist.

“Training would be best after the manual is available,” Adams agrees. “The current draft does not really give much in the way of guidance.”

Lynda Laff, RN, BSN, COS-C, with Laff Associates believes agencies can even wait until the fall to get into specific review and training for OASIS-C2, she says.

However: Now is a great time to brush up on the basics underlying the items that will be changing, Krafft counsels. “A revisit of all the medication items should occur ASAP if my audits are any indication,” Krafft tells Eli.

Common mistake: “I consistently read OASIS records where meds are missing from the home/have not been picked up yet and ‘no problems’ is selected,” Krafft relates.

On the management level, you can’t just ignore OASIS-C2 until close to implementation, however. You should work on issues that underlie the new and revised items, such as generating a standardized policy and procedure for collecting weight for M1060, and working out a process for setting discharge goals for GG0170c, experts advise.

Software vendors are the ones who will be taking on the brunt of the extra work due to OASIS-C2, Laff predicts. “The constant incremental changes are a nightmare for them,” Laff notes. “It means that they are being required to reconfigure and re-program data constantly,” often with insufficient time from the data specs’ release.

Note: A link to the OASIS-C2 item set is at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/OASIS-Data-Sets.html.