correct, they use a screen - been doing some research on it, most people just clean their plugged screens from what im seeing online.

"... I was quite surprised when I saw an oil pan on the bottom of my transmission. I had always been told that Honda products didn't use a filter. Wrong. The screen is so fine, it might as well be a filter. My 96 with 170,000 miles was experiencing a flare on the 3-4 shift, and also in cold weather the transmission sometimes didn't want to go into gear. Cleaning the screen resolved my problems. I purchased a new pan gasket ($13), and cleaned the filter. Extremely easy procedure."
- a post on tl.acurazine.com.

Im guessing its a pretty simple procedure, regardless of their filtering method it needs to be done and will probably get it shifting back to norm again.