2008 was a Leap Year...are you working on Living Arrangements that include February 29, 2008?

February 29th brings the total number of days in 2008 to 366.

The OMA program is set up to take account of this when calculating

things such as the window for filing 3M's, but one thing you will

need to be mindful of is the calculation of Living Arrangements on

any new Baselines for the next year.

In the past, our advice concerning Living Arrangements has been to

write the date range in the top margin before you start tracking, and

to start 365 nights before the Partnership Date. For example, a

Baseline for a client with a Partnership Date of February 15, 2008

would mean that you need to collect Living Arrangements data from

February 15, 2007 to February 14, 2008.

Since the Leap Year puts us off by one day, you will need to start

your calculation a day later. In other words, if your client has a

Partnership Date of March 4, 2008, 365 days before that date (adding

in February 29th) is March 5, 2007.

This difference will remain in effect until March 1, 2009