Oasis C Set For Implementation January 2010

By Author: Angela Martin
Total Articles: 205
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The OASIS C rollout is planned for January 2010, but the explanatory and training material won't be available any time soon. The new OASIS will also require you to look back over the episode of care at transfer and discharge.
Many agencies have expressed concerns about OASIS C Panel members stressed the following items:


Agency burden doesn't increase much: Just looking at the item count, when you compare the current OASIS with OASIS C, you see very little difference in the number of items, except at transfer. But, the transfer OASIS will take longer and contain more items than the current OASIS B to capture more information for CMS.


No impact on payment: The OASIS C impact on payment will be zero. OASIS items used in the payment algorithm were assessed to make sure they were not changed in a way that would affect the payment algorithm, but once OASIS C data are collected, ...
... it will be possible to assess whether they could be useful for refinements to the case mix adjustor.


Process items are optional: The process measures were added in part to capture care that home health agencies can control. Many agencies already incorporate these in their patient care because they identify patients who are at high risk for problems.


CMS has taken care to ensure that each process item in the latest version of the OASIS C provides an opportunity for clinicians to indicate that a process was not conducted. According to CMS, clinicians have the option of responding that an assessment or intervention was not implemented and the option of documenting in the record any additional information they deem appropriate.


These process items may be used in the future for pay for performance - now called quality-based purchasing. Then if agencies decide not to incorporate these evidence-based practices, it could impact future payment.


OASIS C Trainings will make it very important to identify diagnoses early. This is especially true for diabetes, to cue you to ask the questions on the assessment related to diabetes. HHAs also may want a system to add spaces to the referral form to record when a patient received different vaccinations.


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