On October 1, 2019, the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) payment system will transition from RUGS-IV to the Patient Driven Payment Model. This payment model is a major change from the way SNFs are currently reimbursed. Under PDPM, International Classification of Disease, Tenth Edition (ICD-10) diagnosis codes and other patient clinical characteristics, such as the patient’s activities of daily living (ADL) and recent surgeries, will be used as the basis for patient classification and reimbursement.
Resident days up to September 30 will be paid under RUGS–IV and resident days from October 1 forward will be paid under PDPM. This includes patients admitted prior to September 30. There will be no transition period. The change to PDPM represents the most significant change to Medicare A SNF PPS reimbursement since its implementation in 1998. To ensure a smooth transition, prevent denials, and avoid resulting cash flow disruptions, your revenue cycle team needs to be prepared for PDPM. This article outlines steps your facility can take to prepare for PDPM.
Know your current revenue cycle performance
In order to know how you are performing under PDPM, you need to know your current revenue cycle performance. Are there current processes delaying the completion of the Minimum Data Set (MDS)? What is your current case mix? How long does it take the facility to close the month and generate bills? If you have inefficiencies in your workflow and processes, now is the time to fix them. Are there open lines of communication between financial and clinical operations? Financial and clinical must work together to make PDPM work for the facility’s long-term sustainability.
Facilities should be benchmarking their key revenue cycle indicators including, but not limited to, accounts receivable aging comparisons, days in accounts receivables, and collections as a percentage of revenues. Benchmarking can help a facility detect issues early on and resolve them before they become a bigger problem.
Providers will need to communicate with IT providers to be sure they configure electronic health record systems and financial systems for compliance with PDPM. MDS software must be robust enough to help MDS coordinators manage the new process or else facility reimbursement will be affected.
Understand how ICD-10 coding impacts reimbursement under PDPM
Do you know how diagnoses are currently captured on your facility’s MDS? Most facilities are not tracking or monitoring ICD-10 diagnosis codes, as the majority of diagnoses don’t impact quality measures or reimbursement. The implementation of PDPM will require the use of ICD-10 diagnosis codes, which are more detailed and call for accurate documentation. For SNF providers, this means the old ways of documenting resident assessments on the MDS won’t work under the new model.
One of the most important changes under PDPM is that ICD-10 diagnoses will be the key drivers for reimbursement. ICD-10 diagnosis codes will be used to place a resident into one of 10 PDPM clinical categories, that will determine the payment components for physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), speech (SLP), and skilled nursing services, as well as non-therapy ancillaries (NTA).
How can your facility prepare for ICD-10 diagnosis coding?
- Determine the diagnoses codes your facility uses most frequently.
- Compare the codes you most frequently use to the CMS PDPM Clinical Category Mapping
- If codes map to “Return to Provider” you need to review the patient record to find a more specific primary diagnosis
- Make sure you capture the resident’s comorbidities on I8000 to ensure appropriate payment for Non-Therapy Ancillaries (NTA).
- Aftercare codes will be the primary diagnosis if that is the primary reason for the admission.
Preparing for ICD-10 coding requires a coordinated care team. Communicate with anyone who contributes to the diagnosis documentation, including the physician, medical director, PT/OT/SLP, and other specialty care professionals such as wound specialists or dietitians to understand why the resident is there. Identifying the reason the resident is there and assigning the correct diagnosis code will help a facility to be successful with PDPM.
Review the changes being made to the Minimum Data Set (MDS)
In early January, CMS issued a draft version of the MDS 3.0. The draft indicates that there are more than 80 items will be added, deleted, or changed for PDPM implementation. There are 40 new items that will impact reimbursement rates. These changes fall into three categories:
- Streamlined assessment policies
- New PDPM assessment item sets
- Additions to MDS items
The MDS assessments will be more streamlined under PDPM. There are only two required assessments: the five-day assessment and the discharge assessment. The five-day assessment must be completed between days one and eight and will be effective for the entire length of stay unless an optional assessment is performed. The 14-day, 30-day, 60-day and 90-day assessments have been discontinued. The discharge assessment will not impact reimbursement―however, this is where therapy will be reported. Facilities also have the option to perform an interim payment assessment if the patient’s clinical characteristics change. This assessment must be completed within 14 days of the change in characteristics and can affect reimbursement.
The MDS has two new item sets: 1) Interim Payment Assessment (IPA), used for optional assessment if a patient’s characteristics change; and 2) Optional State Assessment (OSA), which will be used by states where RUGS-IV is the basis for Medicaid payments. The IPA should only be used if a patient’s clinical characteristics are not expected to change in the short term.
Significant changes to MDS items are in the following sections:
- Section I: SNF Primary Diagnosis – Item I0020B will allow providers to report, using an ICD-10 diagnosis code, the patient's primary SNF diagnosis. This item will ask, “What is the primary reason the patient is being admitted into the SNF?”
- Section J: Patient Surgical History – To capture information that may be relevant to classifying a resident in a PDPM clinical category, J1000 – J5000 identifies major surgeries from the most recent hospital stay.
- Section O: Discharge Therapy Items – Items 0425A1-O0425C5 will be added to Section O to document therapy delivery information. Therapy delivery will only be reported on the discharge MDS and must include information by each discipline, mode of therapy, and minutes received by the patient. Group and concurrent therapy cannot exceed 25% of total therapy.
- Section GG: Interim Performance – This section is the basis for the resident’s functional analysis. Section GG is more standardized and has more comprehensive measures of functional status. Providers need to be sure to complete Section GG in its entirety as missing responses will receive zero points for the functional score calculation. Section GG is taking on an increased importance under PDPM, as CMS’s goal for this section is to standardize assessment items across payment settings.
Over the years, the MDS has primarily been utilized as an assessment tool to drive the plan of care with little impact to reimbursement. With implementation of PDPM, and the shift from therapy-driven reimbursement to clinical characteristics as the basis for reimbursement, the MDS will be vital to obtaining proper reimbursement. You may need to revise the systems you currently have in place to make sure that the information critical to reimbursement is recorded accurately on the five-day assessment. Missing an item on the five-day MDS will impact reimbursement for the entire resident stay.
Skilled Nursing Facilities will need internal processes, workflows, and staff training in place well before October 1, 2019, in order to be successful under PDPM. Preparation for PDPM is key and it will take teamwork from the entire facility. Focusing on each of the areas outlined above—even if it is just to confirm that you’ve addressed the issue—will put you in good shape to meet the looming deadline. Without a doubt, there will be things that arise at the last minute or processes that don’t work as planned. Don’t panic. We can help you address issues and problems or work with you to create a new workflow process. Just give us a call.
Download our helpful PDPM checklist and see what you need to do.
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