CMS is reporting that some agencies are still experiencing issues with rejected OASIS records in the Assessment Submission and Processing (ASAP) system related to inconsistent or missing data in the Certification And Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) Provider Auxiliary Facility table with the national database.
 
The federal Medicare agency has identified inconsistencies between the Branch ID data in the state database and the Branch ID in the national database, CMS’ Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES) Technical Support office (QTSO) reported in a Jan. 23 memo to QTSO state coordinators.
Don’t forget that the process by which agencies submitting OASIS data to CMS changed Jan. 1 so that they will now submit OASIS data through ASAP directly to CMS, instead of through their state agencies.
 
Here are two examples causing OASIS records to be rejected, according to the QTSO:
 
Error -4700 — This rejection is related to “Invalid Branch: If the assessment was performed by the home office of an agency with branches or by the home office of a subunit with branches, then M0016 must contain P.” It is occurring because the ASAP system identifies at least one open branch on the certification in effect for the effective date of the OASIS record in the national database; however, the agency believes it does not have any open branches. The ASAP system expects a ‘P’ or valid Branch ID value to be submitted, but agencies are submitting an ‘N,’ indicating no branches.
 
Error -4710 — This rejection is related to “Invalid Branch: M0016 must contain a standard branch ID, N, or P.” In this case, some agencies are submitting a branch ID ending in ‘002.’ ‘002’ indicates that this is the ID of the agency’s second branch. But in the national database, there is only one branch for the agency and that Branch ID ends in ‘001.’ In the state database for that same agency, there are two branches identified; one for the first branch — the one that ends in ‘001’ — and one for the second branch — in which the Branch ID ends in ‘002.’ The state agency may need to update the branch information in ASPEN and upload the kit so it will be available in the national database. After the upload is successful, the state needs to notify the provider that it can submit the assessments with the Branch ID ‘002’ and will no longer receive fatal error -4710.
 
If your agency receives either of these errors, CMS asks you contact your OASIS Automation Coordinator or OASIS Education Coordinator for assistance. If you have questions about updating the branch information in the ASPEN software, contact help@qtso.com or call 1-888-477-7876.
 
For a copy of the QTSO memo, which was obtained by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, go to: https://www.nahc.org/assets/1/7/Branch_ID_Memo.pdf.