Medicare nurse @ nursing home?

[MWeeksRN]

I am curious as to what a "medicare nurse" at a nursing home does? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[firstinfamily, RN]

I believe this is the same as the "MDS Nurse". Here in MD, the MDS nurse is the one who reviews the charts and assesses the patients to file the claims for medicare reimbursements for the facility. I had to do some MDS work when I was a unit manager. I found it to be very tedious. There really is not any patient care involved here, it is a matter of putting information in the computer to come up with a rating system which is then filed with medicare. There are MDS courses that one can take, very expensive so have the facility pay for it. Once you are MDS certified you are the "Official" MDS nurse for that facility. Your license is the one responsible if Medicare comes down and charges the facility with mis-filed information or fraud.