Health Outcomes Management - RUG Calculator Terms of Use

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. provides this RUG III Version 5.12 Calculator "as is" as a public service to the Long Term Care community and any other interested parties. No warranty of any kind is expressly or implicitly provided.

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. also provides a more full-featured, online-only RUG Calculator module, for a modest subscription price. Please do not confuse that subscription service with this free calculator! Visit our Clinical Toolkit for more information on our subscription offering. The features of that service are also briefly described at the end of these Terms of Use. Please also note that the Terms of Service for the Clinical Toolkit are not the same as these Terms of Use. If interested in subscribing to the RUG Calculator modules in the Clinical Toolkit, please read its Terms of Service first!

This RUG Calculator requires a frames-capable and JavaScript-enabled browser. However, Health Outcomes Management, Inc. makes no guarantee that if your browser meets these requirements it will be able to run this program.

While every effort has been made to ensure this program complies with the pseudocode published by HCFA on March 29, 1998 and the urban, rural, and nursing CMI sets published July 31, 2000, Health Outcomes Management, Inc. provides no guarantee that the program will operate in accordance with the published pseudocode. Users of this software should not base their reimbursement expectations on the results of this software, nor rely on the results of this software in the operation of their business.

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. shall not be held liable for any failure of this software to calculate the correct RUG III Classification, Per Diem, ADL Sum, CPS Score, Case Mix Index, Nursing Index, or Therapy Index, or for any other failure of this software to perform as expected.

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. shall not be held liable for any inability to access this software due to browser incompatibility, server failure, excessive Internet traffic, or any other communication difficulty.

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. assumes no liability for any clinical, financial, or other decisions made based on the results of this software, whether the software performed as expected or not.

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. provides no technical support for this software. If you feel there is a bug in the software, you may send an email to webmaster@homi.com, but Health Outcomes Management, Inc. shall not be obligated to respond. Any software changes are at its sole discretion. Health Outcomes Management, Inc.'s chief priority is its licensed clients and software.

This Version 5.12 RUG III Calculator includes a section for displaying instructions. We strongly suggest a thorough review of that section. The instructions can also be printed out.

Health Outcomes Management, Inc. has no objections to other web sites hyperlinking to this software, using substantially the following link:

<A HREF="http://www.homi.com/rug/" TARGET="_top" onMouseOver="status='Visit the Online RUG Calculator, by Health Outcomes Management, Inc.';return true" onMouseOut="status='';return true">RUG Calculator</A>

If you prefer, your link may use TARGET="_blank" to open our calculator in a new browser window, but under no circumstances may this program be presented inside a frame on your site. The link and/or the surrounding text and images must clearly acknowledge Health Outcomes' authorship of the program. You may change the status line text, but it must still credit Health Outcomes' authorship of the program. You may change the link text, or link using an image, as long as your link text or image does not obfuscate Health Outcomes' authorship of the program.

Direct links to the download file for this program are expressly prohibited. You are expressly limited to linking to http://www.homi.com/rug/.

This software may be copied, in its entirety only, for use on other web sites, or for local use off the Internet. All credits, references, and hyperlinks to Health Outcomes Management, Inc. must be left intact. All images representing Health Outcomes Management, Inc. must be left intact. Copies of the software may be downloaded from the Health Outcomes web site by clicking on the following link:

http://www.homi.com/download/sw_ltc/rug2001.exe

If you need the version of the calculator that uses the 1999-2000 per diems, this may be downloaded from the Health Outcomes web site by clicking on the following link:

http://www.homi.com/download/sw_ltc/rug2000.exe

Each download is a self-extracting zip file consisting solely of HTML pages and image files, and one Word for Windows document. The zip files are DOS/Windows compatible. The download files have been virus-scanned and found to be virus-free, but it is always in your best interest to scan any file you download for viruses before opening it.

To use the software on your local DOS/Windows computer:

Create a local folder, e.g., C:\RUG2001

Download the rugcalc.exe file to the C:\RUG2001 folder.

Execute the rugcalc.exe file to install the HTML pages. On Windows 9x, Windows NT, or Windows 2000 machines you can do this by clicking on Start, then Run, and typing in C:\RUG2001\RUGCALC.EXE

Point your browser to C:\RUG2001\INDEX.HTM to run the software locally.

The calculator will run under DOS and Windows 3.1, provided you have an appropriate browser and sufficient system resources.

A file called rugws.doc is included in the download. This is a Microsoft Word for Windows version 6.0 document that prints a worksheet you can use to gather answers to the 108 RUG items.

You do not have to be connected to the Internet to run the software locally. All you need is a browser such as Netscape Navigator 3+ or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3+.

Health Outcomes offers an enhanced RUG Calculator package with its Online Clinical Toolkit. The toolkit version offers the following features, which are not available in this free calculator:

Supports the 178-group RUG model that HCFA proposed in the April 10, 2000 Federal Register. (Implementation of this proposal has been postponed at least until October, 2001. It is possible it will never be implemented.)
Save your answers so you can compare results between the 44-group model and the 178-group model.
Print your answers on a form more suitable for the chart.
Save your own personalized setups, including facility-specific per diems, for each RUG version supported.
Ability to switch among CMI sets published by HCFA over the years, and your facility-specific CMI set.
Run reports using your own residents' MDS 2.0 assessments, from your own electronic submission files. (We upload the electronic submission files you select for the report, and temporarily store them on our secured server while the report runs - then we delete them from our server.)

Report comparing your residents' per diems between the 44-group and 178-group RUG models.
Report showing RUG details for your residents' assessments, including Assessment Reference Date, Primary and Supplemental Reason for Assessment, RUG Class, Per Diem, CMI, ADL Sum, CPS Score, and Non-Therapy Ancillary Index Score (178-group model only).

Extensive online help.

The toolkit version cannot be downloaded for local use. It is an online-only application.

Because of all the additional features, to use the Clinical Toolkit's RUG module you must first pay a modest subscription fee ($50/year at this writing). You can also subscribe for a single month ($10 at this writing) to evaluate its usefulness to you.