Medicare News
| For Immediate Release: | Contact: |
| Monday, May 24, 2004 | CMS Office of Public Affairs 202-690-6145 |
For questions about Medicare please call 1-800-MEDICARE or visit www.medicare.gov. |
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CMS EXPANDS MEDICARE INFORMATION AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY TO PROVIDERS VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., today announced that CMS has expanded the Medicare information that is available immediately to health care providers via electronic mail, thereby helping the providers to continue giving the highest quality care to beneficiaries.
CMS has now completed a series of listservs for Medicare providers. The newest listservs are for durable medical equipment suppliers, acute inpatient hospitals and inpatient psychiatric facilities.
CMS had previously established a number of listservs for Medicare providers, including physicians, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. A listserv is an electronic mailing list service for those interested in receiving news.
Providers and others with access to the Internet and an e-mail address can sign up for a particular listserv and receive from CMS up-to-the-minute information about providers on that listserv.
“One of the key goals of the President’s Electronic Government Initiative is to make it easier for citizens and providers to get services from their government,” Dr. McClellan said. “In line with this initiative, CMS is developing educational resources and informational tools, such as listservs, to be consistent with our goal of enhancing responsiveness and improving communications with providers, physicians and others in the health care community.”
Other provider listservs previously established at CMS are for ambulances, ambulatory surgical centers, dialysis facilities, federally qualified health centers, hospices, hospital outpatient departments, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals and rural health clinics.
The signup for a provider listserv is at www.cms.hhs.gov/mailinglists. “Medicare Providers” is selected from the dropdown menu and the signee can subscribe to one or more listservs. The signee can also link from a provider-specific Web page, which can be accessed by clicking on “Providers” from the CMS home page.
In addition, Medicare fee-for-service providers can find information on products available to Medicare providers at the Medicare Learning Network (Medlearn) Web pages at www.cms.hhs.gov.medlearn. A new educational resource featured on Medlearn, “Medlearn Matters…Information for Medicare Providers,” consists of articles associated with new Medicare carrier and fiscal intermediary instructions and is designed to help providers understand new or changed Medicare policy.
Another topic that providers should look for on the Medlearn Web page is the link to information on the Medicare-approved drug discount card (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medlearn/drugcard.asp). This new program is available to help beneficiaries reduce their prescription drug costs and also offers a $600 credit to certain seniors and people with disabilities with limited incomes to help them even further.
Providers can also link to the “Medlearn Matters” resource on the physicians and provider-specific Web pages. In addition, a listserv is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/mailingliststo receive the latest articles. Providers can select “Medicare Learning Network” from the dropdown menu and sign up for the “Medlearn-Matters-L” listserv.
