CMS provides further guidance on answering items A1250 (Transportation) and B1300 (Health Literacy) from start of care (SOC)/resumption of care (ROC) to discharge in its fourth quarter OASIS Q&As, released Oct. 18.
 
It is possible that the answers for these items to be the same for SOC/ROC and discharge, CMS states when asked for an example of where the answers would be different.
 
The intent of A1250 is to identify if a lack of transportation has kept the patient from medical appointments, meetings, work or from getting things needed for daily living over the past six to 12 months, CMS explains in its response.
 
The intent of B1300 is to identify how often the patient needs to have someone help them when they read instructions, pamphlets or other written material from their doctor or pharmacy.
 
“The assessing clinician must consider each patient’s unique circumstances and use clinical judgment to determine how transportation and health literacy applies for each individual patient at both the SOC/ROC and discharge time points,” CMS adds.
 
More new info from CMS
 
The October Q&As include 11 questions covering additional topics such as:
  • Guidance about the process for administering the BIMS assessment in writing.
  • Further clarification about whether information can be collected prior to SOC/ROC to complete new OASIS items such as A1005 (Ethnicity), A1010 (Race), A1110 (Language), A1250 (Transportation), B1300 (Health literacy) and D0700 (Social isolation).
  • Additional guidance on coding for new item K0520 (Nutritional approaches).
 
For further coverage of the latest release of OASIS Q&As, see the upcoming issue of Home Health Line.
 
View CMS’ October 2022 quarterly OASIS Q&As here.
 
Editor’s note: Don’t miss our Ultimate OASIS-E Virtual Training event that will deliver the tips needed to ease into OASIS-E. Sign up today at https://tinyurl.com/yaktawz6.