Download New CMS Documents for the 2016 Release of MDS

CMS has released 3 new documents related to the Oct. 1, 2016, release of MDS:

• The MDS final 2016 Part A Discharge (End of Stay) (NPE/SPE) item set
• The final MDS 3.0 Sections A and GG
• The final SNF Quality Reporting Program specifications for the quality measures adopted through the FY 2016 final rule

The documents are available from the Downloads section at the bottom of the CMS SNF Quality Reporting Program Measures and Technical Information website.

CMS has released version 1.8.0 of the MDS 3.0 VUT, which is a software utility that can be used by MDS software developers to validate MDS 3.0 submission files in XML format. The tool enforces the edits that are mapped to the MDS 3.0 items, as published in the MDS 3.0 specifications. The current release now supports version 1.15.0 of the MDS 3.0 Data Specifications, while continuing to support prior versions for older assessments. In addition, a new command-line parameter, NOSETUP, was added to allow users of listener mode to bypass the VUT UI screen (using the parameters established in VUT.XML).

Please note that there are a few edits that the VUT cannot support, because they are edits against existing Assessment Submission and Processing (ASAP) system data. Since the VUT does not interface with ASAP, it cannot confirm those edits. The VUT also does not currently interface with the Resource Utilization Group (RUG) III and IV DLLs and cannot recalculate and confirm that RUG values are correct.