OASIS-Central

Q: When completing an OASIS, do we compare the patient’s condition and age against other patients of the same age group?

A: When completing an OASIS assessment, clinicians should perform an independent assessment of the patient’s condition, with no comparisons to other patients, situations or age groups. When CMS publishes outcomes, items used to compare agency results are “risk-adjusted.” This allows a more valid comparison of results between homecare providers by eliminating factors that could cause differences in data outside of what is being measured. The goal of risk adjustment is to allow outcomes to be fairly compared based on the care provided, versus other factors outside of the agency’s control (e.g., younger or older patients, average case-mix weight of patients, etc.). CMS performs risk adjustment using statistical modeling. To assure that results are valid, agencies should focus on documenting accurate and complete patient assessments.

It’s important to note that when CMS begins publishing OASIS-C outcome data in July 2011, a completely new risk adjustment methodology will be used to calculate results. This means that trending results between OASIS-B and OASIS-C data will not provide an accurate comparison of data or results.