Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare
If you listened to the August 4, 2022 CMS SNF/LTC Open Door Forum, you heard the announcement from Ellen Berry of CMS that SNFs/LTCs will transition to the iQIES system in early 2023. 3 PAC providers have already made this transition to submit OASIS (HH), IRF PAI (IRF) and LTCH assessments and receive CASPER reports. The QIES and CASPER system is now more than 20 years old!
Ellen told us that the process will begin, by region, starting the week of August 15, 2022 to be concluded in mid-November.
The Onboarding Schedule for MDS Transition to iQIES provides this information:
For more information on the Provider Security Official Role, please visit our: iQIES Quick Reference Guides/Job Aids.
The above hyperlink also provides additional valuable information regarding iQIES. I encourage you to bookmark this iQIES References/Manuals website for future use.
With this upcoming transition, you must do some preparation. One of the first items on your list will be to designate at least 1 (2 would be better: an heir and a spare, so to speak) Provider Security Official. This is a new position that must be in place in your facility before anything else is done, such as securing new user IDs (including 3rd party submitters and vendors), etc. The PSO is responsible for granting user roles in iQIES. Without those user roles, the general user cannot upload assessments or generate and view reports for their facility. This information is found in that iQIES Quick Reference Guides/Job Aids manual.
Anyone and everyone involved in the submission of MDS assessment and/or retrieving CASPER reports should had access to this guide as well as the other manuals provided for this transition.
The Regions provided in the Onboarding Schedule are the states served by the CMS Regional Offices:
Ellen also spoke, during the 8/4/2022 ODF, to the replacement of jRaven with an internet user interface. (The Resident Assessment Validation and Entry System (jRAVEN) is a free Java based software application which provides an option for facilities to collect and maintain MDS Assessment data for subsequent submission to the appropriate state and/or national data repository.)
Don’t delay or put off this notification and the tasks that are required! You don’t want to be caught flat-footed – without the ability to transmit MDS assessments. The MDS is one of the most, if not the most critical document your facility completes and submits. If you’re not prepared for this transition to iQIES, you could lose reimbursement (can’t bill for skilled stays without an accepted MDS) as well as be non-compliant for submission of required data, survey complications, etc. Make sure you’re iQIES-ready.
The recording and transcript of the August 4, 2022 SNF/LTC Open Door Forum is available here. This is a .zip file with this content:
BriggsNetNews 