OASIS Alert
HHAs NEXT IN LINE
Home health agencies might want to take notes on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services new Nursing Home Quality Initiative, to prepare for when its their turn. The Department of Health and Human Services April 24 released new, facility-specific quality data on nursing homes in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington. The information is accessible on CMS Web site. Along with the data initiative, Medicares quality improvement organizations (QIOs)will work with nursing homes to develop systemic changes that will improve patient care. CMS already has announced that QIOs will begin working with HHAs this fall on their outcome-based quality improvement efforts. The third prong of the quality effort, HHS says, is continued enforcement by state survey agencies. "[B]y the end of this year we expect to see some kind of quality initiative for consumers to be forthcoming from CMS for home health," AAHs Ann Howard said at a recent teleconference. "And those 10 to 15 outcomes could very well come from the 41 items on the OBQI report." The Joint Commission on Accreditation ofHealthcareOrganizationswillchangeitsORYX reporting requirements effective January 2003, it says in its latest Home Care Bulletin. JCAHO will allow HHAs to self-report aggregate OASIS data via the Web or to continue using current ORYX requirements. ORYX will be suspended for home medical equipment suppliers "until core measures are identified." For other home care organizations, JCAHO will require internal data collection and usage, but wont mandate data transmission, or the organizations can continue using current ORYX requirements. CMS goofed on the latest PC Pricer download file, it admits. The agency posted the file without the MSA table the software requires to wage adjust payments, resulting in an error stating "invalid MS code" on all claims. Users should discard the April 23 file and go to www.hcfa.gov/medicare/nm75ght/pricdnld.htm to download the newly completed May 10 file, CMS instructs. The PC Pricer software calculates payments under the home health prospective payment system and is updated quarterly. HHAs that participate in the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Services latest salary and benefits survey will receive 50 percent off the report, says the Oakland, NJ-based company. The survey, a cooperative effort between HCS and the National Association for Home Care, will cover salary, hourly and per visit data on 72 jobs. More information is at www.hhcsinc.com.
OASIS Alert
- Regulatory Reform:
INDUSTRY CHEERS PROPOSED OASIS CHANGES
The newly created HHS Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform agrees with many of the complaints [...] - Outcome-Based Quality Improvement:
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
Home health agencies should be ready for some action on OBQI, that is. Now that [...] - OBQI:
PLAN OF ACTION FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FORM
- Marketing:
USE AGGREGATE DATA OR AGGRAVATE THE FEDS
Outcome-based quality improvement provides a treasure-trove of information a home health agency can use to [...] - Adverse Events:
KEEP CLINICIANS EYES PEELED FOR UTI HINTS
Are all your agency's clinicians attuned to the signs and signals of a urinary tract [...] - Quality Monitoring:
CASE THE JOINT
There's a wealth of information right under your nose that could be the key to [...] - Diagnosis Coding:
BEWARE TOP 3 DANGER SPOTS FOR DIABETES CODING
If your home health agency continues to grapple with diagnosis coding for patients with diabetes, [...] - Assessment:
PREPARE STAFF FOR M0610 BY ROLE-PLAYING
"So, Mrs. Jones, does your mother swear at strangers on the street or see and [...] - Reimbursement:
IMPROPER CODING EQUALS TRAUMATIC RECOUPMENT
If your home health agency has been mistakenly using 800- and 900- series trauma codes [...] - Survey & Certification:
DONT DROP THE BALL WHEN YOU ADD A DISCIPLINE
If your home health agency forgets to complete a follow-up OASIS when you add another [...] - Industry Notes:
HHAs NEXT IN LINE
Home health agencies might want to take notes on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid [...]
