CMS has just announced that the draft OASIS C assessment has received a three year approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The finalized OASIS C assessment is scheduled to be implemented by home health agencies on Friday, January 1, 2010.

The approval has come without changes to the draft OASIS C document currently posted on the CMS OASIS web site. According to CMS, "draft" will be removed and the final version will be available within a week. An updated OASIS Manual is expected to be available on the CMS OASIS site by October 2009. The OASIS Institute at Fazzi Associates will update our OASIS C web page with the latest information and tools as soon as they are available. Plus, all of our OASIS services will now focus on helping you with this very significant change.

Recommendations

Now that OASIS C has been approved and an implementation date is set, it is important that all agencies start planning their clinicians' transition to the new OASIS data set now. Consider implementing these best practice recommendations to help ease the transition to OASIS C and ensure long term success:

With five months to go before implementation, agency leaders should complete an agency readiness plan as soon as possible. Evaluate not only the educational needs of the clinical and quality staff, but also your system readiness for documentation and billing processes. Please contact Kay Wright at info@fazzi.com if you need assistance and/or more information on preparing for OASIS C implementation.