OASIS Alert

Time to get cracking on OASIS C staff training.

Be sure to read carefully through the newly released tentative final version, which includes many changes from the November version. The Centers forMedicare & Medicaid Services has deleted 14 OASIS items, added six new ones and changed the wording in various ways on 21 items, says Judy Adams with Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Adams Home Care Consulting.

Ready or not: The new OASIS C assessment instrument soon will replace the current OASIS as the data set home health agencies must collect to participate in the Medicare program.The changes are currently going through the final rulemaking process and HHAs should expect to switch to the new OASIS C as of January 2010, CMS confirms.

Following the comment period that ended Jan. 13, CMS says it has completed its review and response to the comments and submitted the revised final version 12.1 of OASIS C to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. CMS has also posted this "tentative final version" (pending OMB approval) to their OASIS Web site as CMS-R-245. The data elements "have been refined to more accurately capture improvement and process measures," CMS says in the March 3 Web posting.

Note: The final OASIS C form is at www.cms.hhs.gov/HomeHealthQualityInits/06_OASISC.asp. CMS' responses to providers' comments were not yet available at press time. Check next month's issue of Eli's OASIS Alert for further reports and analysis.