Breaking: CMS delays OASIS-E due to COVID-19

Effective May 1, 2020

Published May 1, 2020

Last Reviewed May 1, 2020

CMS delayed the implementation of OASIS-E, originally schedule to take effect Jan. 1, 2021, to provide flexibilities for agencies to respond to the public health threats stemming from COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), according to an interim final rule dated April 28.

Agencies will be required to use OASIS-E beginning with discharges and transfers on January 1 of the year that is at least one full calendar year after the end of the COVID-19 PHE, CMS states. For example, if the COVID-19 PHE ends on September 20, 2020, agencies will be required to begin collecting data on those measures beginning with patients discharged or transferred on January 1, 2022.

Agencies will be required to collect data on the standardized patient assessment data elements (SPADEs) beginning with the start of care, resumption of care, and discharges (except for the hearing, vision, race, and ethnicity SPADEs, which would be collected at the start of care only).

View the rule at: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/covid-medicare-and-medicaid-ifc2.pdf.

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