OASIS Alert

Download 148-page 'Best Practice Manual.'

Sharing an OASIS login identification number with everyone else in your agency will soon be a thing of the past.

Beginning Feb. 23 and ending July 27,the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be changing the way you log in to the OASIS submission system and CASPER reports,  CMS says. Instead of everyone within an agency using one state-assigned shared agency login identification, each user within the agency will have an individually assigned personal login ID, Erin Harris with CMS contractor Iowa Foundation for Medical Care explained in the Jan. 20 home health Open Door Forum. If you need to use the system to transmit OASIS data or to access or run reports, you will need your own ID.

The state-by-state conversion will start Feb. 23 with Illinois, Iowa, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Beginning with these states, each user who logs in to the system will be prompted to access a user registration link and will be directed through the short ID assignment process, Harris explained. You will need to provide first and last name, phone number, email address, selected password, and answersto several security questions. At the end of this process, you will receive your personal login ID, she explained.

The final state in the system rollout will be Texas, beginning July 27, IFMC reports. These changes do not affect your MDCN/ AT&T client login id or password. Continue to direct questions regarding broadband connections to the MDCN Help Desk at 800-905-2069, IFMC states.

Resource: Detailed information about the process, included the date for each state's transition, is at www.qtso.com.

• The December 2009 OASIS C Guidance Manual -- updated to incorporate the corrections from the Guidance Manual Errata document posted Dec. 11, 2009 -- is available for download at www.cms.hhs.gov/homehealthqualityinits/14_HHQIOASISusermanual.asp.Scroll down to the "Downloads" section and select "OASIS C Guidance Manual."

Transcripts and MP3s for the three CMS OASIS C "Train the Trainer" calls are available for download at www.cms.hhs.gov/homehealthqualityinits/03_educationalresources.asp.

• Help has arrived for agencies struggling to decode the major changes in patient assessments the new OASIS C requires. An extensive OASIS C Best Practices Manual is now available free for agencies to download at www.DeltaHealthTech.com/oasisc.

This 148-page manual contains best practices to help ensure clinicians can accurately answer the OASIS C assessment items. For every OASIS C item, the manual includes the item intent, time points for that item, optimal  questions, strategies or techniques, and tips. Clinical and operational recommendations are available for many items.

The manual was compiled by a group of nearly 100 of home care's leading clinicians from across the country, appointed or nominated by their state associations, according to the National  Association for Home Care & Hospice, one of the projects sponsors. Other sponsors are Delta Health Technologies in Altoona, Pa. and Fazzi Associates in Northampton, Mass.

• To download OASIS data specs version02.00 validation report messages and descriptions, go to www.cms.hhs.gov/homehealthqualityinits/14_HHQIOASISusermanual.asp.Scroll down to the "Downloads" section and select "12/2009 Validation and Error Message Guide."

• A 2010 scheduling calendar for OASIS follow-up assessments is available at www.qtso.com/download/hha/oasiscal2010.pdf

.• The Collaboration for Homecare Advances in Management and Practice (CHAMP) is providing free OASIS C resources and downloadable tools -- including two standardized, evidence-based depression screening tools to use in answering M1739 -- at www.champ-program.org.

• Beware changes to your patients' Medicare Advantage status. Open enrollment for prescription drug plans began Nov. 15 and ended Dec. 31. Many seniors think they're signing up for just a drug plan, but unwittingly agree to enrollment in a total Medicare Advantage health plan, observers warn. Those plans often require preauthorization for payment or don't approve home care visits.