Skilled Nursing Facilities/Long-Term Care Open Door Forum

**Updated July 26, 2012 - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) held two Special Open Door Forums today: ACA Section 3004: Quality Reporting Program for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) & Long-Term Care Hospital Quality. Encores for both calls run Monday, July 30, 2012 through Wednesday, August 1, 2012. To access the encore feature dial: 1-855-859-2056 (toll free); IRF Conference ID: 13189170 & LTCH Conference ID: 13198135. Thank you for your continued interest in the CMS Open Door Forums.
**Updated July 24, 2012 - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a Special Open Door Forum on the ACA Section 3004: Quality Reporting Program for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) on July 26, 2012, from 1:00pm-2:30pm, ET. If you wish to participate, dial: 1-800-837-1935; Conference ID: 13189170. Please see the Downloads section below for the announcement with full participation instructions and other related materials.
**Updated July 20, 2012 - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a Special Open Door Forum on Long-Term Care Hospital Quality on July 26, 2012, from 2:30pm-4pm, ET. If you wish to participate, dial: 1-800-837-1935; Conference ID: 13198135. Please see the Downloads section below for the announcement with full participation instructions and agenda.
**Updated July 9, 2012 - The next Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)/Long Term Care (LTC) Open Door Forum is scheduled for Thursday, July 12, 2012, from 2pm-3pm, ET. Please see the Downloads section below for the updated agenda with full participation instructions.
**Updated May 25, 2012 - The next Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)/Long Term Care (LTC) Open Door Forum is scheduled for Thursday, July 12, 2012, from 2pm-3pm, ET. If you wish to participate, dial 1-800-837-1935 Conference ID 76233161. This call will be Conference Call Only. Please see the Downloads section below for the full participation announcement. Thank you for your continued interest in the CMS Open Door Forums.
**Updated March 30, 2012 - A new clarification memo has been posted to the SNF PPS website. This memo is intended to provide clarification of a number of questions that we have received on various SNF policies as well as introduce a new policy, effective April 1, 2012, for handling interviews on unscheduled PPS assessments. The memo may be accessed through the following link: http://www.cms.gov/SNFPPS/Downloads/SNF-Clarification-Memo-20120308.pdf.
**Updated March 14, 2012 - The Draft LTCH CARE Data Set Version 1.00.1 Specifications for October, 2012 are now posted. A Specification Change document identifying changes since Draft Version 1.00.0 is included in the .zip file. Final specifications will be posted in the near future. The specifications can be found on the CMS web page:
http://www.cms.gov/LTCH-Quality-Reporting/ . Specifically, please see the Downloads Section of that web page. The .zip file containing the updated "Draft" LTCH CARE Data Submission Specifications (v1.00.1) is located there.
See Submission Specifications (v1.00.1) The files within this .zip are:
 LTCH Data Submission Spec Changes (v1.00.1) 20120305.pdf
 LTCH 1.0 data specs overview (v1.00.1) DRAFT 20120305.pdf
 LTCH data dictionary (v1.00.1) DRAFT 20120305.zip
 LTCH data specs CSV files (v1.00.1) DRAFT 20120305.zip
 LTCH data specs HTML files (v1.00.1) DRAFT 20120305.zip
 LTCH data specs PDF files (v1.00.1) DRAFT 20120305.zip
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Skilled Nursing Facilities/Long Term Care Open Door Forum (ODF) Overview:
The Skilled Nursing Facilities / Long-Term Care Open Door Forum (ODF) addresses the concerns and issues of both the Medicare SNF, the Medicaid NF, and the nursing home industry generally. The types of issues that come up during this forum are often related to the Minimum Data Set, SNF Consolidated Billing, the roles and responsibilities of different SNF, NF or LTC professional staff under CMS regulations, clarifications of issues that are covered during a survey and certification process, and the many rules and requirements under which different related services can be payable. Timely announcements and clarifications regarding important rulemaking, quality program initiatives, and other related areas are also included in the forums.