The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a draft version of MDS 3.0 last week. CMS disclosed details about it at a Long-Term Care Open Door Forum.
The rough draft is a preview of the system that is still expected to be released on Oct. 1, 2009, CMS said. While it is likely to be tweaked, it offers some important guidance for nursing homes.
It includes some changes from MDS 2.0. Among them: Several sections and items use a seven-day look-back instead of a five-day look-back. Also, a new MDS item labeling scheme will be used. Additionally, the new form will be used for both nursing home and swing-bed providers. And the MDS 2.0 items for dehydration and internal bleeding were restored to this draft.
