For purposes of the patient assessment process, if a Medicare Part A fee-for-service or Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) patient has an interrupted stay, as defined under §412.602, the following applies:

(a) Assessment requirements.

(1) The initial case-mix group classification from the admission assessment remains in effect (that is, no new admission assessment is performed).

(2) When the patient has completed his or her entire rehabilitation episode stay, a discharge assessment must be performed.

(b) Recording and encoding of data. The clinician must record the interruption of the stay on the patient assessment instrument.

(c) If the interruption in the stay occurs during the admission assessment time period, the assessment reference date, completion date, and encoding date for the admission assessment are advanced by the same number of calendar days as the length of the patient's interruption in the stay.

[66 FR 41388, Aug. 7, 2001, as amended at 67 FR 44077, July 1, 2002; 74 FR 39811, Aug. 7, 2009]