The next Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) National Provider Call is scheduled for Wednesday, February 18 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. EST.

In CY 2015, CMS will begin making separate payment under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for Chronic Care Management (CCM) services under Current Procedure Terminology (CPT) code 99490. CCM services are non-face-to-face care management/coordination services for certain Medicare beneficiaries having multiple (two or more) chronic conditions. Call participants are encouraged to review the following rules (links found here) prior to the call:

• The 2014 PFS final rule (CMS-1600-FC), pages 74414-74427
• 2015 PFS final rule (CMS-1612-FC), pages 67715-67730

Register here. 

 

Continuing Education Credit Information 

 

The 2015 Federal Poverty Guidelines were released January 22, 2015. View them in the Federal Register here.

Explore Transplant, the nonprofit organization that helps kidney patients, their family and friends learn about transplant and living donation as treatment options, unveiled a new education program and website that underscore the organization's commitment to support the recommendations of last June's Live Kidney Donation Consensus Conference in Rosemont, Ill.

Read the full release or visit the new Explore Transplant website.

View the Explore Living Donation program components here.

The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA) is offering courses for nursing CEUs. Learn more. 

The 2015 version of the Outpatient Dialysis Practices Survey is now available to view and print. The survey should be completed (in NHSN) in February for the current year. Multiple questions pertain to patients and staff present during the first week of February. Data collection should be entered by someone who works in the center and is familiar with current practices within the center. Complete the survey based on the actual practices at the center, not necessarily the center policy, if there are differences. The survey can be saved in progress. This annual survey must be completed before the first week of May 2015 in order to continue reporting.

The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Dialysis Newsblast series has released two new installments. "How to Update NHSN Access When Staff Change at Your Facility" addresses how to add a new user in NHSN, deactivate an existing user, and make overall updates when there are staffing changes at your facility. "Annual NHSN Requirements - Training and Survey" is also now available.

To help prevent infection in people with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a new resource - the AHRQ Safety Program for End-Stage Renal Disease Facilities Toolkit. Dialysis clinics can use this toolkit to prevent healthcare-associated infections in their patients. The toolkit helps clinicians and other health care workers follow clinical best practices, create a culture of safety, use checklists and other audit tools and engage patients and their families in infection prevention practices. This new resource has science-based, practical information-including educational videos-that reflects the experiences of the frontline providers who helped develop the toolkit.

With the close of the 2014 calendar year, facilities should begin preparing for the 2014 Annual Facility Survey, which all facilities are required to complete in CROWNWeb. All 2014 treatments, admissions, discharges, and CMS forms should be entered before February 15, 2015. Facilities should also create their initial draft of the CMS-2744 in CROWNWeb by February 15. Final submission of the CMS-2744 needs to be completed no later than April 1, 2015.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Get started early. The CMS-2744 process is time-consuming, so getting started early is essential to completing the survey on time.
• When generating your initial draft of the CMS-2744, be sure that you are selecting 2014 as the year and NOT 2015. Everyone should be completing the 2014 CMS-2744.
• When entering your treatment information under the appropriate section on the form, you should be entering the total number of hemodialysis and other treatments for the year, NOT the total number of patients.
• Visit www.projectcrownweb.org for additional information on how to successfully complete your 2014 CMS-2744.

 

Join dialysis facilities nationally that are participating in the 2015 5-Diamond Patient Safety Program.  The 2015 program year offers 14 modules designed to help facilities improve both staff and patient awareness of specific patient safety areas. Learn more.