Close up image of a caretaker helping older woman walk

Doubling the opportunity to take part in the nation’s first “Train-the-Trainer” conference for the new MDS 3.0 nursing home assessment tool was not enough. Federal regulators are now warning unregistered individuals to stay away from next week’s sessions in Baltimore. The new version of the Minimum Data Set is set to go live Oct. 1, giving providers less than six months to deal with complex, dramatic changes.

Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services originally scheduled a “Train-the-Trainer” conference for this coming Tuesday through Thursday at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel; eventually, they had to add another one, which will be held Monday through Wednesday. But it still might not be enough.

“Due to space limitations and fire safety concerns, only confirmed registrants will be provided entrance to the conference. Any unregistered individuals will be turned away,” a CMS statement warned late this week. It also noted that no attendee changes could be made the day(s) of the conference.

More information about next week’s conference schedule can be found at its Web site. More training opportunities, including distribution of video and print files of next week’s presentations, will be available at www.cms.hhs.gov after they are held.