Take a sneak peek at the draft MDS Item Set changes for October 1st, 2019 that will coincide with the transition to PDPM. CMS released the new DRAFT version of the 2019 MDS item sets on January 3rd. This MDS version is scheduled to become effective October 1, 2019.
Here are a few highlights:
Section I
Here are the Section I questions that start the ball rolling with assigning clinical categories under PDPM. Selecting the primary medical condition that best describes the primary reason for admission to the SNF will be key, followed by the corresponding ICD-10 code.
Section O
Section O Therapy Days and Minutes has been modified to incorporate data collection at the end of a Medicare Part A episode that will encompass the full episode. This will allow calculation of excess Group and Concurrent Therapy minutes, as well as provide data to calculate the average time spent with residents on program. CMS indicated that a robust monitoring program would be in place to identify any change in the volume or intensity of therapy, as well as any change in a facility’s practice patterns. The new changes in Section O will provide the data needed to accomplish this.
Below is what Section O will look like for the Therapy Days and Minutes collection at the end of a Medicare Part A stay. The Section O portion of the PPS End of Stay Discharge MDS (NPE) is pictured here. You can clearly see how each discipline is required to report all therapy days, minutes and modes from the start of the Medicare stay through to the end of the Medicare stay. Therapy Start and End dates are not included in this particular assessment like they are on the other assessments, only the therapy totals for the full episode. If your resident is leaving the facility, the OBRA Discharge assessment will likely be combined with this new assessment and the Therapy Start & End Date questions will then be included.
Interim Payment Assessment (IPA)
See the new optional IPA that can be used to reclassify a resident if changes occur during the Medicare Part A stay.
Optional State Assessment (OSA)
See the new OSA (Optional State Assessment) that will be used by some states to obtain a RUG III or RUG IV score over the next year until SNF’s can fully transition to alternate methods for Medicaid state case mix payment.
View All Changes At A Glance
View the Item Set Change History document to see all the changes made at a glance.
Other Important Links
Click for the link to CMS page where the new Draft version Download is located
Click for the direct link to new Draft MDS Manual This will download a zip file to your computer that contains all the new assessment forms.
Start Reading!
There’s a lot of reading to do but this information should get you started and thinking ahead to the reality that is now just 9 months down the road!
Check back soon for learning opportunities on the above changes.
In the mean time, if you have any questions, please send them to us via the Just Ask Q&A Forum.
In Your Corner,
Dolores and the Montero Therapy Team