(1) Nursing facilities shall submit all minimum data set assessments and tracking documents to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) database as required by federal participation requirements, laws, and regulations.

(2) Submitted assessment data shall conform to federal data specifications and meet minimum editing and validation requirements.

(3) Retention of assessments on the database will follow the records retention policy of the Department of Public Health and Human Services. Back up tapes of each rate setting period will be maintained for a period of five years.

(4) Assessments not containing sufficient in-range data to perform a resource utilization group-III (RUG-III) algorithm will not be included in the case mix calculation during the transition period.

(5) All current assessments in the database older than six months will be excluded from the case mix index calculation.

(6) For purposes of calculating rates, the department will use the RUG-III, 34 category, index maximizer model, version 5.12. The department may update the classification methodology to reflect advances in resident assessment or classification subject to federal requirements.

(7) For purposes of calculating rates, case mix weights will be developed for each of the 34 RUG-III groupings. The department will compute a Montana specific Medicaid case mix utilizing average nursing times from the 1995 and the 1997 CMS case mix time study. The average minutes per day per resident will be adjusted by Montana specific salary ratios determined by utilizing the licensed to non-licensed ratio spreadsheet information.

(8) For purposes of calculating rates, the department shall assign each resident a RUG-III group calculated on the most current non-delinquent assessment available on the first day of the second month of each quarter as amended during the correction period. The RUG-III group will be translated to the appropriate case mix index or weight. From the individual case mix weights for the applicable quarter, the department shall determine a simple facility average case mix index, carried to four decimal places, based on all resident case mix indices. For each quarter, the department shall calculate a Medicaid average case mix index, carried to four decimal places, based on all residents for whom Medicaid is reported as the per diem payor source any time during the 30 days prior to their current assessment.

(9) Facilities will be required to comply with the data submission requirements specified in this rule and ARM 37.40.321. The department will utilize Medicaid case mix data in the computation of rates for the period July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2002 and for rate years thereafter.