CMS revises RAI user's manual. (NH news notes).

It's not a New York Times best-seller, but it's a must-have for skilled nursing facilities. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the Revised Long Term Care Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) User's Manual for the Minimum Data Set (MDS) Version 2.0, which replaces CMS's original version published in October 1995. The new manual has clarifications to coding and transmission policy, includes previously published Q&As, and addresses certain problem areas.

"The release of the updated user's manual is one of the most significant events that has occurred for nursing homes in recent years," Rena R. Shephard, RN, BA, FACDONA, told Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management. Shephard, president of the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators and of RRS Healthcare Consulting Services, also noted that the revised manual is just one part of the process to ensure accurate documentation: "Now that almost all of the information the MDS staff needs to know can be found in one manual, the next step in addressing the accuracy problems at the facility level is to ensure that all MDS staff are properly trained by knowledgeable experts. The process is too complicated and too important to leave this training to individuals who are not truly experts--or to leave to on-the-job training."

To download the updated version, visit http://cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/mds20/man-form.asp.