QA Workflow, Locking, and Corrections

Agencies are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of OASIS data submitted to iQIES. The agency should establish quality assurance procedures to verify data integrity, internal consistency, and adherence to skip patterns prior to submission. Inaccurate data affects PDGM payment, public quality measures, and survey readiness.

Recommended pre-transmission checks include verification of: the RFA code (M0100); the assessment completion date (M0090) and its alignment with the applicable completion window; the agreement between gateway items and their dependent child items; the use of dash and NA codes; and the consistency between OASIS responses and the corresponding clinical visit documentation.

An OASIS record becomes locked once iQIES accepts the submission and returns a successful validation status. A locked record cannot be edited in place; subsequent changes require a correction record (M0100 = "Modification") or an inactivation request submitted through iQIES.

Prior to transmission, the assessing clinician (or the agency, with appropriate documentation) may modify any OASIS item to correct errors or omissions. The agency's record-of-correction policy should require that the original assessment date and the assessor's identity are preserved, even when items are corrected.

After a record is locked, agencies may submit a correction record to modify specific items, generally within 30 days of iQIES acceptance. When a record contains errors that cannot be addressed through correction — including wrong RFA, wrong patient, or duplicate submission — the agency must submit an inactivation request, which marks the original record as inactive in the iQIES database.