Breaking News…this just in!
Congress finally took action this week and recinded the delay in the RUGs IV implementation. What does that mean for you? Pending the Presidents signature (which we’re told won’t be a problem) the RUG level you are billing for and the payment you are receiving is the correct payment. There will be no adjustments in April or May. That is good news for everyone.
In addition to the RUGs IV implementation, passing this law also extended the Therapy Caps exceptions for another year. So, you can continue providing services for Part B residents as you have.
One more piece of good news from CMS. During the Open Door forum held on Thursday the 9th, Tom Dudley announced as change in policy. From Iara Woody at AAHSA…. During yesterday’s SNF Open Door Forum, Tom Dudley from CMS clarified directions outlined in the “MDS 2.0 to MDS 3.0 Transition Document” dated October 2010 for coding of item A0310E. The original guidance indicated that the coding for that item should have been coded as “1” for the initial MDS assessments for all existing residents. During the last Open Door Forum in November, CMS had instructed facilities who coded a “0” on that item to submit a corrected assessment. Because CMS noticed that many facilities missed this item on many of the assessments, CMS decided to reconsider the need for facilities to submit corrections assessment. For assessments submitted during the transition period, CMS has decided that facilities DO NOT need to submit corrected assessments if they miscoded item A0310E. Moving forward, CMS asked that all facilities follow the directions in Chapter 3, Section A of the RAI Manual. The transition documents available on the CMS Web site will be updated to reflect this change.
