Home Health Agency (HHA) Providers

CMSNet FAQ [PDF 61 KB]

A new grouper was created to accommodate the changes for the OASIS Data Specification Version 1.60. Agencies should review the HIPPS Code and the Version Code. If the Version Code is the only difference, then no further investigation is necessary. Once the agency upgrades their software which should include the OASIS Grouper Version 02.01 and calculate the HIPPS Code, this warning message should no longer be generated on the final validation report in reference to the Version Code. If the HIPPS Codes do not match, this will require further investigation by the Home Health Agency. Note: Any assessments already locked prior to upgrading your software that have not been submitted at the time of the upgrade will also receive this warning message as the HIPPS Code was calculated prior to the upgrade of the software.

HAVEN Users: HAVEN 8.0 will be available for download after December 21, 2007 from www.qtso.com/havendownload.html

Non-HAVEN Users: Please contact your software vendor for more information.

Once a branch is created on the state system and has been provided a 10 character Branch ID  M0016 must contain a P for Parent or the 10 character Branch ID in order for the record to be accepted.

The only exception to this rule is if all branch offices have been closed and the M0090 (Completion) Date of the assessment is greater than the Closed Date of the branch(s). In this instance M0016 should contain an N for freestanding.

The OASIS Version 1.50 Data Specifications state that the NPI in the header record must match the NPI in the body records. If the two values are different such as, the header is blank and the body record contains the NPI then Warning Message +294 is generated.

To avoid this error in the future, it is recommended that you contact your vendor to ensure that the NPI number is being entered into both the header in bytes 575-584 and each body record in bytes 769-778 when the assessments are exported.

It is possible that the "cookies" setting is set to disable. If this is the case, you will receive a blank login screen rather than gaining access to CASPER. This can be corrected by enabling the "cookies" settings.

In Internet Explorer, select: 

      Tools

      Internet Options

      Security

      Custom Level

      Under the Cookies heading - change all settings to "enable".

      Then select "OK" 

There is a two-month "lag time" between the current calendar month and the latest month for which data has been calculated. The primary purpose of this "lag time" is simply to provide for the most accurate data reporting possible by allowing for corrected assessments to be submitted. For example, if the current month is April 2002, the latest data available during this month will be from January 2002 (the two month "lag time" includes the complete calendar months of February and March). This does not mean, however, that the data for January will be available on April 1st. It simply means that January data will be available during the month of April, with the exact date varying from month to month depending on data processing. It will be expected that the calculations will be performed and the data available after the second Saturday of each month.

When attempting to log in, the User ID and Password fields may go blank or you may receive a message stating "Login Denied" regardless of whether the entries were correct. If this occurs, it is recommended that you close your browser and start over. After 3 unsuccessful attempts, the User ID may be locked out of the system. If this is the case, you must call the QTSO Help Desk at 1/800-339-9313 to have your User ID and Password reset.

Acronyms can be found by going to the QTSO Website (www.qtso.com) and clicking on the Help tab located on either the dark blue bar on the left side of the page displayed and also on the light blue bar near the top of the page.

The Assessment Internal ID is used in the State System to track assessments. Even when an assessment is rejected, it is assigned an ID number. This can track the order the assessments were processed in when they were submitted to the State System.

It is possible for an agency to have zero cases to report. In this event, the report will reflect zero.

If this is not a likely scenario for your particular agency, consider the following explanation.

After investigating a few agencies with reports reflecting zero cases, it has been found that some agencies have submitted their OASIS data in one of two manners:

The agency is set up as a test agency in the state database, thus no production data was stored on the state database.

The agency submitted their OASIS data as test data rather than production data.

Although this will create "unforeseen" work for both the agency and the data processing team, it can be corrected. If your agency is setup as a test agency, contact your state agency for this correction. If your agency has submitted its "production" OASIS data as "test" data, these submissions must be resubmitted for processing.

The following list makes up the 23 PPS Items: (M0175) Discharge in Past 14 Days; (M0230) Primary Diagnosis Code; (M0240) Other Diagnosis Codes; (M0250) Therapies; (M0390) Vision; (M0420) Pain; (M0440) Wound/Lesion; (M0450) Pressure Ulcers; (M0460) Most Problematic Pressure Ulcer; (M0476) Stasis Ulcer Status; (M0488) Surgical Wound Status; (M0490) Dyspnea; (M0530) Urinary Incontinence; (M0540) Bowel Incontinence; (M0550) Bowel Ostomy; (M0610) Behavioral Problems; (M0650) Dressing Upper Extremity; (M0660) Dressing Lower Extremity; (M0670) Bathing; (M0680) Toileting; (M0690) Transferring; (M0700) Locomotion; and (M0825) Therapy Projection.

This situation was probably due to an unintended consequence of your State law. Some States prohibit the collection of HIV and/or STD diagnosis codes. To comply, the OASIS State-system is programmed to reject an HIV or STD diagnosis code. If the State system was to accept blank fields, then all assessments with blank primary diagnosis fields would represent patients with a diagnosis of HIV or STD, essentially defeating the purpose of confidentiality. The current policy is that the HHAs must enter in (M0230) the next most appropriate diagnosis code that is related to the HIV or STD code (i.e., fatigue, malaise, pneumonia, ...).