— A Medical Necessity and Level of Care Item by Item Guide is scheduled for release on April 1, 2012. This is the link (PDF) to the November 2011 Item by Item Guide: . Effective April 1, 2012 it will link to the April revision.
— An MDS 3.0 RAI Manual (v1.08) Errata document labeled “MDS 3.0 RAI Manual (v1.08) Errata_March_12_2012” has been posted in the Downloads section of the MDS 3.0 Training page.
— Providers using MDS 3.0 for nursing homes and swing beds:
“[M]ay ignore warning -3616b on their final validation reports before April 1, 2012, if the warning recommends that the value be changed from 1.0166 to 1.0266 or from 1.0148 to 1.0248. This warning is caused by CMS changing the national system over to the new April 2012 MDS 3.0 data set before the April 1, 2012, start date.
However, if a provider receives warning -3616b for MDS records with an Assessment Reference Date on or after April 1, 2012, then the provider must either A. correctly set up their RUG configuration or B. contact their MDS data entry software vendor to have their software updated or fixed.
— HHSC is hosting a series of trainings for providers who serve individuals in DADS 1915(c) waivers who live in the Medicaid RSA and will soon receive their acute care services through the STAR program in the Medicaid RSA. See this section of the news alerts page for dates and locations.
For details about each entry, see the news alerts page.