AGING AND DISABILITY SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

2007 NH "Dear Administrator" Letters

January 23, 2007

ADSA: NH #2007-001
RAI USER’S MANUAL – POSSIBLE ERROR

Dear Nursing Facility/Home Administrator:

This letter contains important information for facility staff responsible completing the Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent out a notification to the state RAI coordinators, dated 12/27/2006, regarding some misinformation that may have been printed by commercial publishers of RAI User's Manuals for MDS Version 2.0. The incorrect information is related to Chapter 3, Section G of the manual and appears to have been printed using "DRAFT" revisions dated May 2005. The May 2005 "DRAFT" was announced by CMS in April 2005, but was withdrawn very shortly after the posting, updated and then released in final version in June 2005.

Please have your staff review their RAI User's Manuals to be sure that they are not using any material from the unofficial May 2005 draft document. The section of the manual to check specifically is Section G pages 80 - 83. There was an incorrect sentence in the May 2005 draft on page 80 under the coding for ADLS, item 0. Independent, that instructs: "If the activity occurred less than three times in the look back period, code '0' Independent, regardless of level of self-performance." This sentence was not included in the June 2005 revision and should be deleted if you find it printed there.

The official, updated version of the CMS RAI User's Manual for MDS 2.0 is available online.

If you have any questions, or need further information, please contact Marjorie Ray, RN, Washington State RAI Coordinator at (360) 725-2487 or e-mail rayma@dshs.wa.gov.

Sincerely,

Joyce Pashley Stockwell, Director
Residential Care Services

Enclosure: CMS Notification