OASIS Alert
DONT DROP THE BALL WHEN YOU ADD A DISCIPLINE
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If your home health agency forgets to complete a follow-up OASIS when you add another discipline to a patient's care, a surveyor just might throw some unpleasant discipline your way. Most agencies consider adding a discipline, such as a physical therapist or home health aide, as indicative of a significant change in the patient's condition, notes Chapel Hill, NC-based consultant Judy Adams, with the Larson Allen Health Group. "If that's [the agency's] policy about a SCIC, then they're supposed to at that point reassess the patient, which means doing another OASIS," she explains. Unfortunately, many agencies are dropping the ball at this point, reports consultant Rose Kimball with Med-Care Administrative Services in Dallas. The problem is particularly prevalent when an agency adds a home health aide, she tells Eli. Kimball also frequently has encountered the problem in agencies that don't have physical therapists complete OASIS in these cases, the nurses often will forget to complete the follow-up assessment when the therapist is added, she notes. Granted, agencies do "have an opportunity to go back and fix it, but they're catching a state OASIS regulatory warning, and we want to minimize those," Kimball says. Agencies that neglect to complete a follow-up OASIS assessment at one of the mandated time points are "out of compliance with a condition of participation so it's a survey and certification issue," warns Adams. Surveyors can slap HHAs that habitually forget to complete follow-up assessments with citations on the assessment/reassessment standard, she reminds providers. Not only that, but if you miss out on the follow-up OASIS, you miss out on the added reimbursement you might stand to gain by claiming the SCIC. "If you're going to claim a SCIC you have to do [the follow-up]," counsels consultant Lynda Laff with Northbrook, IL-based Laff Associates. (For more information on when to claim a SCIC, see Eli's OASIS Alert, Vol. 3, No. 5, p. 56.) Part of the reason agencies are forgetting to complete a follow-up assessment after adding a discipline is that many clinicians simply don't realize the financial impact it can have, suggests consultant Laura Slataper with Houston-based Home Care Consulting. HHAs should ensure that clinicians are "tuned into" issues that may increase payment, she urges. "Agencies finally are realizing the impact of OASIS and when and how to administer it."
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