The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Department of Public Health
Division of Health Care Quality
99 Chauncy Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02111
617-753-8000

DEVAL L. PATRICK
GOVERNOR
TIMOTHY P. MURRAY
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
JUDYANN BIGBY, MD
SECRETARY
JOHN  AUERBACH
COMMISSIONER	
Circular Letter:  DHCQ:  08-04-487
TO:        Nursing Homes, Home Health Agencies
FROM:   Paul Dreyer, Bureau Director 
RE:	   Broadband Conversion for MDS/OASIS Submissions and CASPER Reporting Connectivity                                   
DATE:    April 29, 2008

As you may know, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is requiring all Medicare-certified long-term care and home-health agencies to switch from a dial-up connection to a broadband connection for submitting MDS or OASIS assessments and acquiring QI/QM (CASPER) reports. The switch-over has been extended due to technical difficulties, but CMS has made significant recent advances in the process.

In light of this, this letter serves as a reminder that conversion to a broadband connection is still a requirement. Broadband connectivity is currently available to facilities/agencies capable of making the switch. While a final deadline date for conversion has not yet been established, CMS highly recommends that facilities/agencies that have not switched over to a broadband connection start implementing the conversion process as soon as possible. Any facility that has not converted by the final deadline will risk being out of compliance in regard to MDS/OASIS transmissions and also missing out on financial reimbursement. Facilities that do not have access to broadband must submit a waiver request to CMS or they also risk being out of compliance. Waivers will only be granted to facilities in remote locations that do not have access to a broadband provider. 

The ‘broadband conversion’ means that sometime in the near future, facilities/agencies will no longer be able to submit assessments through conventional dial-up connections. Facilities will need access to a broadband connection in order to connect to state servers. Also, AT&T Global Client version 7.0.2 must be installed and configured to connect using this broadband connection. Once that is successfully done, broadband conversion is complete. For further detailed technical specifications, please see the page on the QTSO website at https://www.qtso.com/mdcn.html. 

For any questions, please call Andrew Sinatra at the MDS/OASIS Help Desk at 617-753-8188.