CMS is celebrating Christmas this year by releasing a draft version of its OASIS-C2 data item set for home health, scheduled for implementation Jan. 1, 2017.
 
The new OASIS item set, released Dec. 22, has been created to comply with the requirements for standardized, cross-setting measures for post-acute care under the IMPACT Act, the federal Medicare agency says in a news release. (See a draft of the all-time points version here, while data specifications can be found here.)
 
Here are some of the major changes in the draft item set:
  • The version includes three new standardized items — M1028 (Active diagnoses, comorbidities and co-existing conditions), M1060 (Height and weight) and GC0170c (Functional abilities and goals at SOC/ROC), along with modification to and renumbering of select medication and integumentary items to standardize with other post-acute settings of care (M1311 (Current number of unhealed pressure ulcers at each stage), M1313 (Worsening in pressure ulcer status since SOC/ROC), M2001 (Drug regimen review), M2003 (Medication follow-up) and M2005 (Medication intervention)).
  • The look-back period and item number was changed in five items: M1500 (Symptoms in heart failure patients), M1510 (Heart failure follow-up), M2015 (Patient/caregiver drug education intervention), M2300 (Emergent care) and M2400 (Intervention synopsis) to M1501 (Symptoms in heart failure patients), M1511 (Heart failure follow-up), M2016 (Patient/caregiver drug education intervention), M2301 (Emergent care) and M2401 (Intervention synopsis).
  • Formatting changes were made — where responses are mutually exclusive — throughout the item set to convert multiple checkboxes to a single box for data entry and to change the numbering for pressure ulcer staging from Roman to Arabic numerals.