Rural Health Open Door Forum Update

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Special Open Door Forum:

Understanding Dialysis Facility Compare-Driving Informed Decision Making

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

2:00 p.m. – 3:00p.m. Eastern Time

Conference Call Only

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a Special Open Door Forum (SODF) call with patient advocacy groups, dialysis patients, and other interested parties to provide information and to solicit feedback on the introduction of star ratings on Dialysis Facility Compare.

Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) has become a major information resource for the end stage renal disease (ESRD) community. Originally launched in 2001 and mandated by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, it currently features 9 measures on approximately 6,000 Medicare-certified dialysis facilities. To make it easier for consumers to compare and select providers, CMS introduced star ratings on DFC as part of our plan to feature star ratings on all of our Compare websites, including Nursing Home Compare and Physician Compare, which already have them.

This Special Open Door Forum will provide background on the Compare website star rating initiative, the development of star ratings for DFC, and the role of star ratings and other important consumer information in making treatment decisions.

Please Submit Questions

We invite questions from ESRD patients, consumers and consumer advocates, and plans, providers, and purchasers in advance, or during the forum. Please submit questions here.

Please follow along during the call for the Power Point slides: www.dialysisdata.org.  

We look forward to your participation.

Special Open Door Participation Instructions:

Participant Dial-In Number: 1-800-837-1935

Conference ID #: 62054250

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.

A transcript and audio recording of this Special ODF will be posted to the Special Open Door Forum website at http://www.cms.gov/OpenDoorForums/05_ODF_SpecialODF.asp for downloading.

                       

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.gov/opendoorforums/ .

Thank you for your interest in CMS Open Door Forums.