You Asked: Does the definition of “quarter” for the quarterly MDS data submission deadlines include patients admitted during that quarter, discharged during that quarter, or both?
We Answered: According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the quarterly data submission deadlines apply to patients with an admission and/or discharge date that occurs within that quarter. For example, if a patient was admitted on March 30 (Quarter 1: January 1–March 31) and discharged on April 28 (Quarter 2: April 1–June 30), there would be two submission deadlines to meet. The first quarter data submission deadline (August 15) would apply for the patient’s MDS five-day PPS assessment and the second quarter data submission deadline (November 15) would apply for the patient’s MDS PPS discharge record.