I’ve been asked a couple of times this week about admission to adult care facilities and this thing called “PASRR”… what is it? Well, let’s check it out at the NC Health and Human Services website.
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North Carolina Pre-Admission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR)
Who is subject to PASRR Screening?
The PASRR is a required screening of any individual who is being considered for admission into a Medicaid Certified Nursing Facility or Adult Care Home regardless of the source of payment. Please see the specific informaition below for each program.
PASRR Level I
Federal law (42 CFR 483.128) mandates that states provide a Level I screen for all applicants to Medicaid-certified nursing facilities to identify residents with serious mental illness (SMI), mental retardation (MR), or a related condition (RC). For residents with no evidence or diagnosis of SMI, MR, or RC, the initial Level I screen remains valid unless there is a significant change in status.
Referred to as the Level I or identification screen, specific diagnostic and functional questions about an individual are raised to identify those persons with mental illness, mental retardation, and conditions related to mental retardation. The Level I and, when required, the Level II screens must be performed prior to nursing facility admission (excluding those situations discussed in Section II.D.ii of this manual).
The Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services (DMH/DD/SAS) PASRR Unit is the agency which will make final determinations regarding appropriateness of placement and need for specialized services and, in cases where specialized services are determined as necessary, the DMH/DD/SAS will arrange for provision of those services.
PASRR Level II
The Level II screening is triggered by evidence of a serious mental illness (MI), mental retardation (MR) or condition related to mental retardation (RC) as defined by state and federal guidelines. The purpose of the Level II screening is to determine if the individual has any special needs due to his/her identified condition that need to be addressed in a nursing facility or if those special needs are so significant that they cannot be met in a nursing facility and can only be met in a psychiatric hospital or a specialized facility dedicated to the care of the developmentally disabled. For those suspected of meeting state and federal PASRR criteria for MI or MR/RC, Level II screens must be performed both prior to admission (PAS) to assess for both NF placement appropriateness and specialized service needs.