Federal regulators will conduct the first of a handful of “train the trainer” sessions for the new MDS 3.0 nursing home assessment tool Monday through Friday in Baltimore. The highly anticipated sessions are aimed at state Medicaid directors, survey directors and other invited individuals, according to federal officials who will conduct the training.

Another round of training for MDS 3.0 trainers will take place April 13-15 for other interested individuals, said directors with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The new version of MDS (Minimum Data Sets) is still on target for an Oct. 1, 2010 implementation date, regulators recently said. It will constitute the biggest changes to the system in recent memory and will require each facility to get up to speed on new provisions and methodology in a timely manner.