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CMS has now
scheduled a Town Hall Meeting on March 16 about the SNF ABN. (See Federal
Register notice, Below.) Right now, it appears that that meeting is an in-person
only event. However, it is possible to send in comments by e-mail or fax prior
to the meeting. And considering the breadth of potential changes, it might
be wise for people to take a look at the form AND its instructions and
to make some comments.
Here is
what a CMS guy from the Center for Beneficiary Services had to say at Tuesday's
Open Door Forum:
"With this new advance beneficiary notice for
skilled nursing facilities, as we develop this notice, which we put out as a
model already, but as we develop this we really do want the input and advice
from the industry so that we can make it the best possible form and the process
as good as possible. So we are
going to have this town hall meeting on [Wednesday] March 16 from
"This town hall meeting is going to be a major
component in our prior consultation efforts. So we really encourage your
participation at that meeting. We
also hope that beneficiary advocates will be attending that meeting. If you have comments that you would like
to make on the SNF ABN form, and/or the instructions for using the form, but you
are not going to be able to attend, please send them into us anyway for our
consideration in this first phase of the process of developing this notice. You can send comments in by snail mail,
by Postal Service, to E. Joan Collins at Central office here. The Mail stop is S. 10506 or you can
e-mail them to her at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or you can fax them to
410-786-9963."
"If you are going to send comments in rather than
attend, please send them to us early enough that we can receive them by
[Tuesday] the 15th so that we have the advantage of them for our town
hall meeting. As we go ahead beyond that point with our prior consultation
efforts in developing this notice, we are going to use these open door forums as
one venue for attaining your input and advice. We can also use our listservs to
share drafts with you as we go along. We plan to consumer test the notice
probably during April and May. Sometime during that period, we are going to
be doing consumer testing. After that, we will make any final revisions to the
form that we have found to be desirable from the testing, and we plan to again
solicit your input on the final draft of the notice and the instructions. We
presently envision a 30-day comment period for the final form and its
instructions. That would be followed by the final publication in the manual of
the form and the revised instructions. We had previously intended that the SNF
ABN would go through the paperwork reduction act process for an OMB approval
number. We have discovered, however, that there is a specific exclusion or
exemption for SNF notices for patient rights in OBRA 87 and as a result we are
not going to be putting it through the paperwork reduction act process. But we do intend anyway to follow
virtually the same sort of process and give you a couple of opportunities to
make comments, to give us your input, and to give us your best advice."
[Federal Register: February 27,
2004 (Volume 69, Number 39)][Page 9323-9324]From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov][DOCID:fr27fe04-59]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services[CMS-4090-N] Medicare Program; Town
Hall Meeting on Proposed Collection--Comment Request for Skilled Nursing
Facility Advance Beneficiary Notice (SNFABN)AGENCY: Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.[[Page 9324]]
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces a Town
Hall meeting to solicit input from the public on the proposed use of a Skilled
Nursing Facility Advance Beneficiary Notice (SNFABN). Interested persons are
invited to comment on the SNFABN Notice (CMS-10055 form) collection instrument,
the associated burden or any other aspect of this collection of information,
including any of the following subjects: (1) The necessity and utility of the
proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency's
functions; (2) the associated time burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to
minimize the information collection burden. The meeting is open to the public,
but attendance is limited to space available.
DATES: The Town Hall meeting will be
held on Wednesday, March 16, 2004, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., e.s.t.
ADDRESSES: The Town Hall meeting will
be held in the Multi-Purpose Room at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS), 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21244.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: E.
Joan Collins by phone at (410) 786-4618, via e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED], or by fax at
(410) 786-9963.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Background The
Skilled Nursing Facility Advance Beneficiary Notice (SNFABN) replaces the
Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Notices Of Non-Coverage previously used for
notification purposes. SNFs must also meet the advance beneficiary notice (ABN)
Standards in Sec. 40.3 of chapter 30, Financial Liability Protections, of the
IOM Pub. 100-4 at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/manuals/104_claims/clm104c30.pdf in completing and delivering SNFABNs. A SNFABN is a
CMS-approved written notice that the SNF gives to a Medicare beneficiary, or to
their authorized representative, before extended care services or items are
furnished, reduced, or terminated when the SNF, the Utilization Review entity,
the Quality Improvement Organization, or the Medicare contractor believes that
Medicare will not pay for, or will not continue to pay for, extended care
services that the SNF furnishes and that a physician ordered on the basis of one
of the following statutory exclusions:
II. Meeting Format Registered persons from the
public may discuss and make individual recommendations concerning the Skilled
Nursing Facility Advance Beneficiary Notice. Individuals who wish to make formal
presentations must include that information when registering. Presentations must
be brief, and three written copies must be submitted to accompany the oral
presentation. Presenters may also make copies available for approximately 70
meeting participants.III. Registration Instructions Representatives of
providers and suppliers furnishing skilled nursing facility services, health
care consumer advocacy groups, and other members of the public who wish to
participate in the public meeting are asked to notify us, in advance, of their
interest in attending. Interested persons may register by providing notification
to E. Joan Collins either by telephone at (410) 786-4618, fax at (410) 786-9963,
or by e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Please submit
the following information when registering: name, company name, address,
telephone number, and e-mail address and an indication of whether you wish to
make a formal presentation. Because this meeting will be located on Federal
property, for security reasons, any persons wishing to attend this meeting must
register by close of business on March 10, 2004. In order to gain access to the
building and grounds, participants must show to the Federal Protective Service
or guard service personnel government-issued photo identification and a copy of
their registration confirmation. Individuals who have not registered in advance
will not be allowed to enter the building to attend the meeting. Seating
capacity is limited to the first 250 registrants. The on-site check-in for
visitors will be held from 12 noon until 1 p.m., followed by opening remarks.
Please allow sufficient time to arrive to go through the security checkpoints.
It is suggested that you arrive at 7500 Security Boulevard no later than 12 noon
so that you will be able to arrive promptly at the meeting by 1 p.m. All items
brought to us, whether personal or for the purpose of demonstration or to
support a presentation, are subject to inspection. Individuals requiring sign
language interpretation or other special accommodations must provide that
information upon registering for the meeting.(Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance Program No. 93.774, Medicare--Supplementary Medical Insurance
Program.) Dated: February 12, 2004.Dennis G. Smith,Acting Administrator,
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.[FR Doc. 04-4275 Filed 2-26-04; 8:45
am]BILLING CODE 4120-01-P
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