Updates & FAQs

Public Health Emergency Resource Update

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has resources available to help you prepare for the end of the PHE.

The following materials reflect recent changes and are currently available on the CMS Emergencies Page:

• Provider-specific fact sheets for information about COVID-19 Public Health Emergency(PHE) waivers and flexibilities 

• CMS 1135 Waiver / Flexibility Request and Inquiry Form

It is encouraged to regularly visit the CMS Emergencies Page for the most up-to-date information provided as we approach the end of the PHE.

OASIS Q&A January 2023

Feedback on Guidance

• Not all staff are aware that the Final OASIS-E Guidance Manual was posted. 

• Some were unaware of the important and significant updates from the draft to the final manual and had some frustrations when getting questions from their auditors. These then caused some slowdowns in processing the OASIS.  

• Medications have been a bit of a struggle for some data collectors in understanding the medication classes and indications for N0415 – High-Risk Drug Classes: Use and Indications.   

Feedback on Data Submissions and Accuracy

• There have been a few concerns about possible IT glitches between OASIS-D1 and OASIS-E that agencies are working on with their vendors.   

• To ensure accuracy, some agencies are manually spot-checking their scores for C0500 – BIMS Summary Score and D0160 – Total Severity Score, to ensure the scoring logic is compliant.

Hospice Regulation Set Update

Effective January 27, 2023, the HOSPICE FED – L – 5.00 regulation set was added to support the State Operations Manual (SOM) Appendix M updates and is available in iQIES. 

Please refer to Appendix M to view all of the updates. 

If you have any questions, please contact our QIES/iQIES Service Center by email: iqies@cms.hhs.gov or phone: 1-888-477-7876 (Select Option 1). Please note that call volume may be higher than normal during this time.