| The Outcome Assessment Information Set (OASIS) has
been the definitive patient assessment tool for Medicare
certified home health agencies since 1999. OASIS forms
the basis for both Outcome Based Quality Improvement
(OBQI) in home health and case-mix adjustment under
the home health prospective payment system. OASIS information
must be reliable in order to ensure valid outcome measures
and accurate payment. Completing OASIS is a very specific
process, with specific criterion for each response.
While skilled home care is an art, completing the OASIS
is very much a science.
When a clinician makes an assessment visit, the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the home
health agency are relying, expecting, and requiring
that the clinician have the ability to assess the patient,
and to clearly document the patient's condition and
need for services on the OASIS according to CMS interpretation.
The quality of the individual patient OASIS data is
a function of its degree of accuracy, neutrality, verifiability,
and conformity with uniform CMS interpretations of the
OASIS items.
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