MDS Alert

??MDS Nurses Want To Know??

Check Out State MDS-Related  Documentation Requirements

Question: Do some states have rules governing documentation requirements for the MDS that can get a nursing facility in trouble with surveyors or Medicaid if the facility doesn't comply? If so, how can facilities find out if their state has such rules?

Answer: In some states, information collected on the MDS partially drives Medicaid reimbursement for nursing homes. These states can then choose whether to specify additional documentation to validate MDS coding in reimbursement-related fields.

For example, Kentucky and Indiana have developed documentation standards/guidelines that long-term care providers must follow for Medicaid reimbursement purposes. And each of these states has determined how it will handle "missing" clinical record documentation. To find out if your state has MDS-related documentation guidelines, contact your state's RAI coordinator. 

A current listing of RAI coordinators can be found on the MDS 2.0 website:
www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/mds20/raicoord.pdf.

Source: Andrea Platt, RN, consultant with Thomas Healthcare Consulting in Indianapolis.

Other Articles in this issue of

MDS Alert

View All