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Comment early and often.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If you think Medicare needs to change some things about the newly unveiled OASIS-D tool that takes effect Jan. 1, don\u2019t wait until the last minute to give program officials a piece of your mind.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\u00a0<\/strong>will have several OASIS-D commenting opportunities for home health agencies and other stakeholders, a CMS spokesperson says\u00a0The first comment period is part of the Paperwork Reduction Act process and closes May 11.<\/p>\n The current draft \u201cOASIS-D is based upon the policies that we finalized in Calendar Years 2017 and 2018 rules,\u201d the CMS source notes, referring to the Home Health Prospective Payment System rules.<\/p>\n Then, \u201cbased upon the comments received, a revised version will be posted in early summer with an additional review period,\u201d the CMS representative explains. \u201cCMS intends to release the draft OASIS-D in July 2018.\u201d The agency will post the draft at\u00a0www.cms.gov\/Medicare\/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments\/HomeHealthQualityInits\/index.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n CMS will post the revised draft in conjunction with the 2019 HH PPS rule, observers expect, and a final version will be out with the final rule in November.<\/p>\n Take heed:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Often, CMS makes few or no substantive changes between the proposed and final rules, industry veterans note. That makes this initial PRA comment period the best opportunity to urge CMS to make any changes necessary to the tool revamped for IMPACT Act compliance.<\/p>\n \u201cHave your voice heard,\u201d urges consulting firm\u00a0Kornetti & Krafft Health Care Solutions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cNow is the time\u201d to comment, before the new OASIS items are finalized, urges software provider\u00a0Therapy Boss\u00a0<\/strong>in a blog post.<\/p>\n OASIS-D aims to \u201ccomply with requirements for the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014,\u201d CMS notes in its supporting statement for the tool. Changes related to IMPACT Act compliance include:<\/p>\n CMS is also adding these new items for standardization to align with the IRF-PAI (Inpatient Rehab Facility) and MDS (Skilled Nursing Facility) assessment tools:<\/p>\n Get Ahead Of Common GG0170 Pitfall<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cQuite a bit\u201d in the tool \u201cwill be different,\u201d notes Therapy Boss.<\/p>\n \u201cChanges to the assessment are extensive,\u201d agrees consulting firm\u00a0Fazzi Associates\u00a0<\/strong>in a post on its website.<\/p>\n And \u201cthis is not the last we will be hearing about additions to the OASIS,\u201d Therapy Boss adds.<\/p>\n CMS originally proposed in the 2018 HH PPS rule a much larger slate of additions to OASIS, but decided to withdraw many of the items after receiving comments (see Eli\u2019s HCW, Vol. XXVII, No. 11<\/em>). CMS held off on implementing the proposed additions for Section B: Hearing, Speech and Vision; Section C: Cognitive Patterns; Section E: Behavioral Symptoms; Section I: Active Diagnoses; Section K: Swallowing\/Nutritional Status; and Section O: Special Treatments, Procedures and Programs.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the remaining proposed sections are planned to be released in 2020,\u201d Therapy Boss says.<\/p>\n \u201cOASIS continues to change as a data set used for the purposes of quality assessment, as well as payment for Medicare certified home health agencies,\u201d notes accrediting body\u00a0Community Health Accreditation Partner\u00a0<\/strong>(CHAP) on its blog.<\/p>\n Plan now:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\u201cAs veterans of home health know, changes to OASIS mean changes the software companies must incorporate before January 2019, as well as agency education of staff in the new OASIS items and wording,\u201d CHAP says.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let the deadline sneak up on you. \u201cStart your planning for implementation soon,\u201d Therapy Boss urges.<\/p>\n In particular:<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cReinforce education with clinical staff who may not understand completely how to answer the existing question GG0170C on the current OASIS,\u201d the company recommends.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a number of questions in the new data set with the same formatting, so it is important that they answer both sections appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n Note: See the OASIS-D materials at\u00a0www.cms.gov\/Regulations-and-Guidance\/Legislation\/PaperworkReductionActof1995\/PRA-Listing-Items\/CMS-10545.html<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Source- SuperCoder<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
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