The video My Choice, Home Dialysis has been placed on YouTube where it can be accessed easily. It features patients describing the advantages of home dialysis in their own words. Find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZquRiZ0RwSU. For subtitles:
YouTube can also translate subtitles into more than a hundred additional languages.
ASN Kidney Week 2018 will be held in San Diego CA October 23-28, 2018. Early registration discounts end August 29, and advance registration discounts end October 17, 2018. For more information and registration, see https://www.asn-online.org/education/kidneyweek/2018/register.aspx. Kidney Week 2019 will be held in Washington DC November 5-10, 2019.
Employment Options has announced that recordings of the audio and presentation slides are available from their July 2018 webinar on the impact that employment may (or may not) have on SSI and SSDI benefits. Find the recordings at https://www.myemploymentoptions.com/benefit-questions-webinar-archive/.
They’ve also announced that their next Job Fair will be held on October 11, 2018. For Job Fair information see https://www.myemploymentoptions.com/register-for-virtual-job-fair/.
AAKP HealthLine, KidneyWorks (https://www.kidneyworks.org/), MEI, and several ESRD Networks, will collaborate to present a free August 7, 2018 webinar called Keep on Truckin’: Keeping or Getting Back to Work with Kidney Disease. Registration is required, at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2282601924470068481. The webinar will be recorded and archived along with other past HealthLine sessions; see http://aakp.org/aakp-healthline/ for more information.
EQRS 2.0 will be installed during regular overnight maintenance on August 9, 2018, and training on EQRS 2.0 will be offered on August 9 and repeated on August 10, 2018. For more information see http://mycrownweb.org/education_/training-calendar/ for August.
The same calendar announces a New User Training on August 14, 2018.
Slides and recordings of CROWNWeb Town Halls can be found at http://mycrownweb.org/events/. The July 26, 2018 Town Hall included a review of Pain Assessment and Depression Screening.
High temperatures are still expected and, because of nearby wildfires, Air Quality Alerts are posted “until the fires are extinguished” for:
Excessive heat remains in the forecast for most of Southern California except the coast, through July 28, 2018, with peaks nearing 120°F in the hottest places; see https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=CAZ061&warncounty=CAC065&firewxzone=CAZ261&local_place1=Palm%20Desert%20CA&product1=Excessive+Heat+Watch&lat=33.7338&lon=-116.3928.
CMS requires Networks to track the status of facility operations and patient access to treatment during emergency events. If the operations of your facility, or ability for patients to have access to dialysis are impacted by emergency events, please let your Network know right away. For reporting instructions, and information on hydration, keeping cool, and preventing fires, see https://nwrnbulletins.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/7-4-8-heat-and-fire-danger/.
New Medicare Card (NMC) mailings to Alaska, California, and Oregon have been completed. Anyone in those states who did not get a new card, should print a Still Waiting for Your New Card? handout from:
And then either:
Mailings to Idaho, Montana, and Washington will not begin till August at the earliest, and probably considerably later. CMS is committed to mailing new cards to everyone with Medicare by April 2019. Until December 31, 2019 health care providers and suppliers can use either the former SSN-based HIC Number, OR the alpha-numeric MBI (Medicare Beneficiary Identifier) on the new cards, for all Medicare transactions.
Additional resources:
CROWNWeb has announced the topic for their July 26, 2018 Town Hall meeting: The Journey From CROWNWeb to EQRS. The head of the EQRS program, P. Nicole Crenshaw, will discuss the vision for EQRS, as well as the transition from CROWNWeb, ESRD QIP and REMIS to EQRS. Additionally, the call will provide an overview of completing the Pain Assessments and Depression Screenings in CROWNWeb. Register at http://mycrownweb.org/pcw_community_events/crownweb-town-hall-event-the-journey-from-crownweb-to-eqrs/.
CMS has announced that the PY2019 Preview Period for the ESRD QIP will now begin August 6, 2018, and end September 5, 2018 at 11:59 pm PDT.
Facilities will still have 30 days to review their preliminary PSR and to submit Clarification Questions or a Formal Inquiry. CMS encourages all facilities to review their PSRs and to submit Clarification Questions and Formal Inquiries in a timely manner. Their current notice does not mention this, but in their earlier notice they urged facilities to submit their Clarification Questions during the first two weeks of the Preview Period, in order to be assured that their Questions will be answered in time for use in formulating their Formal Inquiry if that is necessary.
See also https://nwrnbulletins.wordpress.com/2018/06/25/7-11-qip-py2019-preview-period-webinar/ and https://nwrnbulletins.wordpress.com/2018/07/13/7-19-qip-webinar-details/ for posts about the earlier notices.
For further assistance regarding the information contained in this message, please contact the ESRD QIP Support Team using the ESRD QIP Q&A Tool found at https://cms-ocsq.custhelp.com/app/homeesrdqip/p/960. If you have questions or concerns regarding use of the ESRD QIP system, please contact the QualityNet Help Desk at qnetsupport-esrd@hcqis.org or 866-288-8912 Monday-Friday, 5am-5pm PDT.
The CMS MLN Matters document on New Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI): Get It, Use It has recently been revised, but the only change is the addition of the information (on page 2) that the MBI does not use the letters S, L, O, I, B, or Z in order to avoid confusion with similarly-shaped numbers.
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