CMS Posts MDS 3.0 User’s Manual (SNF)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Quality Measures (QM) User’s Manual v18.0 and accompanying Risk Adjustment Appendix File, which is effective January 1, 2026, The Notable Changes section incorporates major changes from the older version which includes the Re-specification of Percent of Residents who Received an Antipsychotic Medication (Long Stay) and the Risk Adjuster Change for Discharge Function Score Measure due to Retired Therapy Items on the MDS. The re-specified long-stay antipsychotic medication measure will begin public reporting on Care Compare in January 2026 and will use July 1, 2025-September 20, 2025 (Q3 2025) as the initial data collection period. You can find the manual and associated files in the Downloads section of the NHQI Quality Measures webpage.