HCFA briefs state coordinators on OASIS progress at NAHC
HCFA briefs state coordinators on OASIS progress at NAHC
By MATTHEW HAY
HHBR Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON The National Association for Home Care (NAHC; Washington) reports that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA; Baltimore) said home health agencies held locked assessments of Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) data an average of 19.7 days prior to submission and that repository data is very similar to OASIS demonstration data.
The agency also noted that repository data contains more than 5 million assessments since August 1999 and that 95% of all agencies expected to submit OASIS data have complied. The remaining 5% are either being monitored with enforcement procedures initiated or have closed, NAHC said.
The agency released this information at the recent Annual OASIS Coordinators’ Conference in New Orleans, where it updated state coordinators and surveyors on new information related to OASIS data collection, reporting, and outcomes.
NAHC also reported that HCFA plans to publish the final rule requiring masking of OASIS data on non-Medicare/non-Medicaid skilled patients on June 20, and delay "personal care only" patients for at least two years as previously announced.
According to NAHC, masking will apply only to non-Medicare/non-Medicaid patients and unmasked data on these patients will be rejected. HCFA’s HAVEN 3.0 software includes the masking function and will be posted on the agency’s OASIS Web site shortly.
According to NAHC, HCFA realizes that ICD-9 coding is less than accurate in some areas, such as the lack of acceptance of valid V codes and E codes, non-specific codes to allow for greater description. But HCFA emphasized that both OASIS and the prospective payment system will require revisions over time.
HCFA has drafted revisions to the interpretive guidelines for agencies incorporating surveyor instructions on OASIS (see related story), and those guidelines are currently available for surveyors as an official working draft, said NAHC.
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