Home Health & Hospice Week

The Centers forMedicare &Medicaid Services recently posted its "tentative final" version of the drastically revamped OASIS tool on its Web site (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 10, p. 74). That was earlier than many experts had predicted.

But now CMS has rescinded that version, called Version 12.1. "Disregard Version 12.1 and look for a new posting pending the submission of a corrected document 12.2 to [the Office of Management and Budget] for a Federal Register Notice," CMS says on its Web site.

The official rulemaking notice actually appeared in the Federal RegisterMarch 9, points out a CMS official. But CMS's Paperwork Reduction Act Web site, which will house the new version, hasn't been updated yet. The new version should appear there "soon," the CMS source tells Eli.

Remember: Although the forthcoming reissued form will be "tentative final," it may still undergo some tweaks in the rulemaking process.

But the rulemaking notice is not a proposed rule with comment period, points out Chicago-based regulatory consultant Rebecca Friedman Zuber. It's a submission for OMB review of an agency information collection activity with a comment request. "That's a little different" than a proposed rule and probably won't be followed by substantive content changes, Friedman Zuber expects.

Comments on the form are due April 8, the notice says. HHAs should still expect Jan. 1 implementation for the new form, experts agree.

Note: CMS's notice is at www.cms.hhs.gov/HomeHealthQualityInits/06_OASISC.asp. The Federal Register notice, including instructions for submitting comments on the new form and a link to the PRA Web site where the new form will be, is at www.http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-4883.pdf.