HCPro.com: PPS Alert for Long-Term Care

Looking for a tool to make your job easier? PPS Alert for Long-Term Care, exclusively for the RN or MDS coordinator, is your survival guide for complying with PPS.

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February 2008 (Volume 11, Issue 2)	view entire issue

Get the most out of your state RAI coordinator
The state resident assessment instrument (RAI) coordinator is an important resource available to help MDS coordinators and other interdisciplinary team members deal with the complexities of MDS coding and the RAI process. In order to use your state coordinator to maximum advantage, take the following steps

CMS issues January 2008 RAI manual update
As it has done several times in the past, CMS slipped a last-minute goody into the nursing home industry's 2007 Christmas stocking. On December 26, 2007, the agency quietly posted a new update to the RAI User's Manual on its MDS 2.0 Web page at www.cms.hhs.gov/nursinghomequalityinits/20_nhqimds20.asp. In addition to revising some of the contact information in Appendix B, "State Agency Contacts Responsible for Answering RAI Questions," the January 2008 update includes several clarifications to the coding instructions in Chapter 3 of the manual.

LOAs: Are you restarting the PPS MDS schedule unnecessarily?
At the October 2007 Skilled Nursing Facility/Long-Term Care Open Door Forum, a caller raised the question of whether a skilled nursing facility (SNF) has to restart the MDS schedule when a Medicare Part A resident goes on a leave of absence (LOA). "We have heard that if a resident goes out for less than 24 hours on a leave of absence, we don't have to restart our MDS," she said. "But we have also heard that when a resident goes out on a leave of absence, we have to restart the MDS schedule regardless of the length of the leave."

PPS Q&A
Editor's note: "PPS Q&A" is written by Rena R. Shephard, MHA, RN, FACDONA, RAC-CT, founding chair and executive editor of the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators and president of RRS Healthcare Consulting Services in San Diego.

Other recently-published articles from PPS Alert for Long-Term Care:

PPS Q&A

Coding therapy on the MDS: Make sure minutes are coded accurately to avoid denials

Working the RAPs successfully: A guide to the process

RAP documentation: Achieve compliance

PPS Q&A

The RAPs: What they can do for you

Assess and individualize to code item M5c

’Better off dead’ MDS 3.0 question troubles some MDS nurses

CMS will add five-star ratings to Nursing Home Compare

PPS Q&A

Take these steps for timely, accurate quarterlies

The key to Medicare meeting success lies in the agenda and advance prep

PPS Q&A

Medicare meetings from the ground up

Look into CMS’ crystal ball

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