The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued the latest version of the Minimum Data Set 3.0 Resident Assessment Instrument User’s Manual, which takes effect Oct. 1. This is v1.11, which replaces v1.10.
Although CMS posted the new manual Tuesday, just one week before it goes into effect, the agency previously had issued guidance to long-term care providers on notable changes regarding therapy and nutritional status.
The MDS 3.0 will begin to track distinct calendar days of therapy and will include a co-treatment minutes item. In Section O0420, the manual update includes coding instructions and examples for the distinct calendar days of therapy requirement. The co-treatment item — found in Chapter 3, page O-17 — calls on providers to “enter the total number of minutes each discipline of therapy was administered” in co-treatment sessions over a seven-day period.
The new swallowing and nutritional items are in Chapter 3, Section K. They explain how providers should code the proportion of total calories a resident receives through parenteral or tube feeding and the average daily fluid intake by IV or tube feeding.
In addition to the therapy and nutritional items, the updated manual also includes clarifications to coding and transmission policies, including provider-requested clarifications and example scenarios for complex areas, according to CMS. Sections A, H, M, N and Q are among those that warrant particular attention, experts recently told McKnight’s.
Providers can refer to change tables with highlighted text to see the new and revised material. CMS posted the complete new manual, replacement manual pages and change tables on its website. Click here to see the changes.
