The long-awaited (and sometimes dreaded) implementation of MDS 3.0 is here, effective October 1, 2010!  Care Providers of Minnesota has had numerous articles, webinars, and in-person programs designed to make sure our members are prepared for successful implementation of this new assessment system.

One of the most challenge MDS tasks for providers has been to keep the MDS 3.0 Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) manuals up-to-date.  With less than one month to go prior to implementation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided over 17 changes to the manual.  Many of the changes were negligible or subtle, but it is important that providers have current RAI manuals that are able to be quickly updated.  If you have not checked for updates for your RAI manual since July, it is time to update your manual(s)!  Click here to access the CMS training materials page, scroll down the page to:  “MDS 3.0 RAI Manual September 2010 [ZIP 21 MB]” and open the file (and any subsequent zipped files) and print out all the September 2010 updates as well as the update change-tables (summaries).

Hopefully CMS has caught all the “bugs” in their printed materials, and changes will be rolled out less frequently in the future.  Care Providers of Minnesota will inform members of all future updates, as well as provide brief summaries of any future updates.

Don’t forget to register for each of the remaining Minnesota Department of Health MDS 3.0 conference calls:

Also note that Care Providers of Minnesota will be hosting our first “virtual” Region Meeting to discuss MDS 3.0 issues on October 7.  During this webinar, you can get answers to your MDS 3.0 questions from a panel of experts.  We will be answering questions submitted to us in advance, as well as responding to live email questions during the webinar.  Remember, there are no questions too basic—if you have a question, likely there are peers out there with the same question.

Just like traditional Region Meetings, this event is FREE of charge to MEMBERS.

Unable to participate on October 7 (for example, we realize that MDH scheduled one conference call during our scheduled webinar)?  Don’t worry, we will archive the meeting and it will be on Care Providers of Minnesota’s website for future access to members.  Have MDS 3.0 questions you would like addressed during the Region Meeting webinar?  Send them to csmith@careproviders.org.

Pathway Health Services is starting a toll-free hotline staffed by Clinical Reimbursement Speciaists from October 1 to 15 to answer your MDS 3.0 questions.  Here is the information on this service:

MDS 3.0 Hot Line
877-MDS-3902
(877-637-3902)

Dates and Times:
October 1-15
Monday - Saturday
9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. EDT

Here is the link for the form to have your questions answered:  http://mds.pathwayhealth.com/mds/mds_faq.aspx.

Finally . . . we have tried to prepare the shortest list of “must have” MDS 3.0 links we could produce.  Click here to view these vital links.  We wish all providers good luck with their MDS 3.0 implementation.  Can you say Sock, Blue, and Bed?!

Doug Beardsley
952.851.2489
dbeardsl@careproviders.org

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