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Welcome to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Quarterly Provider Update, A Source For National Medicare Provider Information. During this Pilot Phase, we will test the concepts as well as the structure of the information and expect to improve both the usefulness of the tool from the provider perspective and our internal procedures. Your feedback will assist us in pilot testing this tool.

This is just one of a number of steps that we have taken to become a better, more predictable business partner. Other steps include open listening forums across the country and open door policy forums. By providing a focus for our communications with providers, we are ensuring that providers are fully aware of new developments in the Medicare and Medicaid programs and have time to react and prepare for new requirements. By publishing this Update, we intend to make it easier for providers to understand our programs and comply with Medicare regulations and instructions and to provide predictability to our communication of new or changing Medicare requirements.

We have established several business objectives. First, we intend to publish the Update on the first business day of each Quarter on the CMS Website. Second, because of the complexity of the policy decisions associated with much of our regulatory work, we are taking an intermediate step towards enhancing the consistency of our regulatory publications. Specifically, we intend, to the extent practical, to publish regulations on a predictable cycle once a month. We plan to publish CMS business in the Federal Register on the fourth Friday of each month. In fact, each issue of the Update will identify the specific days on which CMS business will be published in the Federal Register. It should be noted however, some of our regulatory work has statutory publication dates and we will continue to comply with the statutory requirements. In addition, the Update will include a listing of the regulations published in the previous quarter.

Third, the Update will include all non-regulatory changes to Medicare, including all Program Memoranda, manual changes and any other instructions that could affect providers. To the extent practical, all instructions will be implemented 90 days after they are included in the Update. However, some instructions and program changes have external dependencies that will necessitate a mid-Quarter publication and these instructions/changes will be clearly identified.

We hope that you will find the Update to be a useful tool for keeping you informed about changes to Medicare's regulations and instructions. At the end of the Update you will find a "Feedback" form. We encourage you to use this form to provide your thoughts and comments on how we can further develop this tool, including its format, layout, and presentation. We look forward to working with you to improve the delivery of CMS services to our beneficiaries.

View the Cover Page

View The April 2003 CMS Quarterly Provider Update Table of Contents

View the What's New Page and Sign Up for the QPU ListServ

View The CMS Quarterly Provider Update Archive