ESRD - Town Hall Meeting & Special Open Door Forum

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Town Hall Meeting:
End Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule
Friday October 23, 2009 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT
CMS Central Office Auditorium and Conference Call

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requests your participation in a Town Hall meeting on Friday, October 23, 2009, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time). The meeting will be held in the auditorium at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21244, with the opportunity to listen via conference call.

The purpose of this meeting is to allow interested parties to make oral statements in response to the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule that was published in the Federal Register on September 29, 2009. This ESRD PPS proposed rule would implement a case-mix adjusted bundled prospective payment system for Medicare outpatient ESRD dialysis facilities beginning January 1, 2011, in compliance with section 153(b) of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA). The proposed ESRD PPS would replace the current basic case-mix adjusted composite payment system and the methodologies for the reimbursement of separately billable outpatient ESRD related services.

The Town Hall meeting is open to the public. Primary audiences for this meeting include ESRD facilities and beneficiary, provider, supplier and laboratory groups. Individuals interested in attending the event on-site at the CMS complex must register in advance. We are extending registration until Friday, October 9, 2009, or until seating capacity has been reached, whichever occurs first.

Please note: Registration is required only for on-site participation. Individuals interested in listening to the event via conference call should not register.

Registration Details for On-Site Attendance
Registration instructions for attending the Town Hall meeting on-site are located at the following Website: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ESRDPayment/PAY/itemdetail.asp?filterType=none&filterByDID=-99&sortByDID=4&sortOrder=descending&itemID=CMS1228519&intNumPerPage=10 external link

We request that individuals interested in providing oral statements attend the event on-site. In addition to registering to attend on-site, these individuals are required to register separately to make an oral statement during the meeting. Speaker registration instructions are located at the following Website:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ESRDPayment/20_town_hall_speaker.asp#TopOfPage external link

In general, speaker registration will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. However, in the event the number of speaker requests exceeds the allotted timeframe for the town hall meeting, we reserve the right to select those speakers that will offer the broadest array of topics and viewpoints.

Conference Call Participation
Individuals who are unable to attend on-site may listen in via a toll-free conference line by dialing 1-800-837-1935, conference ID number 33239635. This call-in line will be available on a first come first served basis on Friday, October 23, 2009, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time).

A recorded audio version of the Town Hall meeting will also be available Monday, October 26, 2009 beginning at 9:00 AM through Thursday, October 29, 2009, at 11:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time) by dialing 1-800-642-1687, conference ID number 33239635.

We look forward to your participation.

Note: TTY Communications Relay Services are available for the Hearing Impaired.
For TTY services dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-855-2880. A Relay Communications Assistant will help.

Thank you for your interest in CMS Town Hall Meetings.

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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Special Open Door Forum:
End Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule Overview
Thursday October 15, 2009
3:30PM - 5:00PM EDT
Conference Call Only

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a Special Open Door Forum (ODF) to discuss the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule that went on display at the Federal Register on September 15, 2009. The primary audiences for this Special ODF are ESRD facilities and provider, supplier, laboratory and beneficiary groups.

The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) was enacted on July 15, 2008. Section 153(b) of MIPPA amended section 1881(b) of the Social Security Act to require the implementation of an end-stage renal disease (ESRD) bundled payment system effective January 1, 2011 (herein referred to as the "ESRD PPS").

In the September 29, 2009, Federal Register (74 FR 49922), we published a proposed rule outlining the proposed ESRD PPS. This ESRD PPS proposed rule would implement a case-mix adjusted bundled prospective payment system (PPS) for Medicare outpatient ESRD facilities beginning January 1, 2011, in compliance with section 153(b) of MIPPA. The proposed ESRD PPS would replace the current basic case-mix adjusted composite payment system and the methodologies for the reimbursement of separately billable outpatient ESRD services.

During this ODF, CMS staff will highlight the key features of the proposed ESRD PPS including the:

  • composition of the bundle and basis for the proposed unit of payment;
  • data sources used in developing the system;
  • proposed patient-level and facility-level case mix adjusters;
  • proposed outlier policy; and
  • proposed market basket.

CMS will also discuss implementation issues associated with the proposed system, highlight key findings reflected in the impact analysis, provide a brief overview of the quality incentive program that CMS discusses as a conceptual model with the proposal of three quality measures for 2012, and summarize issues that have been identified for further analysis within the final rule.

Afterwards, there will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions.

Discussion materials for this Special ODF will be available to download at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ESRDPayment/ external link by October 14, 2009.

We look forward to your participation.

Special Open Door Forum Participation Instructions:
Dial: 1-800-837-1935
Reference Conference ID#: 26811397
Note: TTY Communications Relay Services are available for the Hearing Impaired. For TTY services dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-855-2880. A Relay Communications Assistant will help.

An audio recording and transcript of this Special Open Door Forum will be posted to the Special Open Door Forum Website: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/OpenDoorForums/05_ODF_SpecialODF.asp external link and will be accessible for downloading beginning October 25, 2009 and will be available for 30 days.

For automatic emails of Open Door Forum schedule updates (E-Mailing list subscriptions) and to view Frequently Asked Questions, please visit our Website at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/opendoorforums/ external link.

Thank you for your interest in CMS Open Door Forums.

Page Last Updated: Friday, 06-Nov-2009 14:11:30 CST