OASIS Alert

HHAs in many states face an uphill battle.

You may have to overcome many factors endemic to your state to reduce your rate of acute care hospitalizations.

Mississippi has almost twice as many preventable hospitalizations (110 per 1,000 Medicare enrollees) as Vermont (58 per 1,000), the latest American Health Rankings 2007 shows. Hawaii had the fewest preventable hospitalizations (32.2 per 1,000 Medicare en-rollees) while West Virginia had the most (114.4). Of the 25 states with the worst preventable hospitalization rates, 19 were east of the Mississippi River.

What is included: American Health Rankings is an annual state-by-state analysis that considers personal behavior, the community environment, quality of clinical care and community and policy decisions, the United Health Foundation explains in its press release.

Some underlying data: Vermont tops the list of healthiest states while Mississippi is number 50, according to the report sponsored by the United Health Foundation, the Partnership for Prevention and the American Public Health Association. Mississippi spends twice as much per capita ($197 per person) as Vermont ($93 per person,) the study reports. In other comparisons between the two states, 31 percent of the population in Mississippi is obese, compared with 21 percent in Vermont. And twice as many people in Mississippi lack health insurance (21 percent) as in Vermont (10 percent).

Best and worst: Following top ranked Vermont are Minnesota (2), Hawaii (3), New Hampshire (4) and Connecticut (5). Just above Mississippi at the bottom of the pack are Louisiana (49), Arkansas (48), Oklahoma (47) and Tennessee (46). The states that showed the greatest decline in health last year are Kansas and New Jersey.

Resource: Information by state is at http://www.unitedhealthfoundation.org/ahr2007/index.html.

• A fully tested version of the software home care vendors use to finalize the 2008 PPS programs for HHAs is now available. The bugs are now fixed on the Nov. 16 release, CMS contractor Abt Associates claims. You can download the software at http://www.qtso.com/hhadownload.html.

• CMS is testing the new version of HAVEN now. The agency won’t release the software until mid-December because some providers always begin using it too early, CMS’ Pat Sevast said in a session at the OCCB’s conference in Baltimore. Agencies will have to download the software, because CMS will no longer provide CDs. You can access the software when you sign into the system to transmit your OASIS data.

• CMS’ OASIS Follow-up Assess-ment Scheduling Calendar for 2008 is available for download at http://www.qtso.com/download/hha/oasiscal2008.pdf.

• To get the latest information on how to survive the massive changes heading your way, sign up for an Eli audioconference

One possibility is "Your Trusty Guide To Wound Care Coding in Home Health." Get answers to your wound coding challenges and concrete directions for accurate wound care coding. Judy Adams, RN, BSN, HCS-D of LarsonAllen; Thurs. Jan. 17, 2008, 1 pm ET, 90 minutes, http://www.audioeducator.com/industry_conference.php?id=721.