DAL-Modifications to the NYS Grouper Due Changes in the OASIS-E Tool
- Letter is also available in Portable Document Format
March 10, 2023
Dear Administrator:
RE: Modifications to NYS Medicaid Grouper for Certified Home Health Agencies Due
to Changes to the Federal Outcome & Assessment Information Set-E (OASIS-E) Tool
Beginning January 1, 2023 the Federal OASIS-E tool that collects data for skilled Medicare and Medicaid patients, 18 years and older, was updated by CMS, which caused a disconnect between many of the claims billings systems and the current NYS Medicaid Episodic Payment System (EPS) “Grouper” scoring.
With OASIS-E becoming effective January 1, 2023, certain codes no longer exist and have been replaced with new codes. These new codes and two existing codes have been removed from the Recertification (Recert) and Other Follow-Up forms but they do exist on the Start of Care (SOC) and Resumption of Care (ROC) forms. As a result, the Medicaid grouper is no longer aligned to accurately calculate the patient’s clinical score which is used to determine the proper rate to bill.
In order to facilitate functional billing logic, the Medicaid grouper mapping will remain consistent. If the patient is being recertified, once the Recert OASIS-E is finalized, the billing system should refer to the patient’s latest ROC OASIS and pull all of the missing information from it. If there is no ROC OASIS, then the system should refer to the patient’s latest SOC OASIS (see attachment A for a detailed summary of changes). If there is no ROC or SOC OASIS due to the patient’s recent transition into the current electronic medical record (EMR)/billing system from a legacy EMR/billing system, then the missing information from the legacy system’s most recent ROC or SOC OASIS should be manually obtained and entered into the current system.
In light of the time required by providers and billing agents to update their systems and conduct necessary testing, the 90-day timely filing deadline has been waived through April 2023 date of service claims. Providers using this waiver should complete all claiming by May 31, 2023 (1 month after the conclusion of the waiver) using delay reason code 3.
It is important to note that this waiver does not include any adjustment to the rates for pediatric patients, who continue to be reimbursed on a historical fee-for-service per unit basis in accordance with Part 86-1.13 and who are not assessed with the OASIS-E tool. The list of applicable rate codes is attached (Attachment B). Please email any questions to the email address: CHHA-Rates@health.ny.gov.
Sincerely,
Laura Rosenthal, Director
Bureau of Nursing Home and Long Term Care Rate Setting
Division of Finance and Rate Setting
Office of Health Insurance Programs
Cc: Amanda Pyskadlo, Deputy Division Director, DMDD
Thomas Heckert, Pended Claims Unit, DMDD
Tammy Jessup, Pended Claims Unit, DMDD