September 27, 2024
The final Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) User’s Manual version (v)1.19.1 is now available in the Downloads section on the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) Manual page. The MDS 3.0 RAI User’s Manual v1.19.1 will be effective beginning October 1, 2024. This version of the MDS 3.0 RAI User’s Manual contains guidance to support the addition of new items N0415K: Anticonvulsant and O0350: Resident’s COVID-19 vaccine status.
The information gathered for MDS item O0350 will be incorporated into a new Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program (SNF QRP) measure, COVID-19 Vaccine: Percent of Patients/Residents Who Are Up to Date. Data collection for this measure will begin on October 1, 2024, with data from the fourth quarter of 2024 being utilized for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 SNF QRP program. Following this, the measure will rely on a complete calendar year (CY) of data (for example, FY 2026 will use data from CY 2025).
Since this is part of the SNF QRP measures, not reporting data for O0350 could lead to a penalty. Skipping O0350 (which suggests the item was not evaluated) counts against the reporting threshold and may lead to a 2 percent reduction in the annual Medicare payment update if the facility fails to report at least 90 percent of assessments with all required data.
Additional updates to the MDS include, the Discharge Goals column in items GG0130: Self-Care and GG0170: Mobility have been removed; and the guidance and examples in Section GG have been revised to reflect the modification. Expanded guidance has been added regarding Manual Assessment Correction/Deletion Requests in Chapter 3, Section X, and Chapter 5. Various minor alignments, clarifications, and corrections have been implemented throughout; specifics can be found in the included chapter/section change tables following the guidance.