Guest Columns: Long-term care needs certified electronic health records too

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is gearing up to educate nursing home providers about the coming changes with MDS 3.0. An Open Door Forum, which will cover MDS 3.0 and MDS training, among other topics, is scheduled for this afternoon.

The Open Door Forum will be held today at 2 p.m. EST. Besides MDS, the agenda also includes advance beneficiary notices and the resident assessment instrument (RAI) manual. To participate in the teleconference, dial (800) 837-1935 and use conference ID 40384200.

CMS next week will hold the first of three satellite broadcasts providing an overview of MDS 3.0, which is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, 2010. The live broadcast will take place on Dec. 17 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST.