The new GG Section of the MDS has been in practice for almost a month — just enough time to see what questions about nursing and therapy departments cooperating still need answering.

October 1 not only introduces new MDS areas, it also places SNFs into a data collection window from October 1-December 31, 2018, which will impact their FY 2020 annual payment update.

The final Minimum Data Set (MDS) item sets and matrix for nursing homes were released late Friday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).