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Medicare Streamlines Paperwork Requirements for Nursing Homes to Allow Nurses, Other Caregivers to Spend More Time with Patients May 29, 2002 - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced streamlined Medicare paperwork requirements so that nurses and other clinical staff in nursing homes can spend more time caring for patients and less time filling out forms. Beginning July 1, skilled nursing facilities will be able to use a shorter version of an assessment form used to gather information needed to pay Medicare claims. The shorter form will cut the time that it takes for nurses to fill out the forms in half - from 90 minutes to 45 minutes - while continuing to collect data needed to measure quality of care in nursing homes. "Less time on paperwork means more time for nursing care, and that helps nursing home residents," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "This change in Medicare requirements reflects our commitment to restoring common sense to the regulatory process so that Americans can receive quality health care without creating needless hassles for nurses and other health care professionals." Medicare currently requires nursing homes to fill out an eight-page patient assessment form, known as the Minimum Data Set (MDS), at regular intervals in order to ensure proper payment for the care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Beginning July 1, 2002, CMS will instead give nursing homes the option of using a new shorter assessment, called the Medicare Payment Assessment Form, in most circumstances. The new form, which is three-and-one-half pages, could be used to update a Medicare beneficiary's condition on days 5, 14, 30, 60 and 90 of the person's stay in the nursing home. The form includes all the information needed to ensure Medicare pays correctly and to measure the quality of care provided by nursing homes. The change is the latest step in HHS' ongoing efforts to replace inefficient regulatory requirements that can interfere with the quality of health care with alternative approaches that promote quality care. Last year, Secretary Thompson created an HHS task force to review regulatory requirements and an Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform, consisting of consumers, doctors and other health professionals, to recommend appropriate changes. "We are streamlining the assessment forms so that we require only the information that we need to pay claims correctly and assess the quality of care provided," CMS Administrator Tom Scully said. "The changes are consistent with the Secretary's regulatory reform efforts and should help nursing home staff be even more effective in taking care of patients." As required by the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, nursing homes would still use the full MDS for each resident no later than 14 days after the resident's admission, to conduct an annual assessment and to note a significant change in status for a resident. These assessments help nursing home staff plan and monitor a patient's care. The shorter form, which can be used for other updates required by Medicare, includes all of the elements needed for new quality measures that can help consumers compare nursing homes. Last month, as part of a pilot project, HHS last month released new data on nine quality measures for nursing homes in six states - Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington. The quality measures, along with other comparative information about nursing homes, are available at Medicare's consumer Web site, http://www.medicare.gov, under Nursing Home Compare. The new shorter form is available on the CMS website at
www.hcfa.gov/medicaid/mds20/man-form.htm. It is compatible with the current
electronic reporting system used for MDS data.
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