Register for CMS Rural and Tribal Listening Session

Aug 11, 2024

You are invited to participate in a listening session to share your perspectives on the new health equity services for Medicare patients living in rural and tribal areas.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) is interested in exploring the barriers and facilitators for adopting new Medicare billing codes among providers serving rural, tribal, and geographically isolated areas. CMS is collaborating on this effort with the CMS Alliance to Modernize Healthcare, a federally funded research and development center (Health FFRDC). The Health FFRDC is operated by the MITRE Corporation and sponsored by CMS.

In the Calendar Year 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule, CMS added the following codes to advance health equity and support care coordination and health related social needs:

1. Caregiver Training Services: Individual or group training for caregivers to support a patient's treatment plan.
2. Social Determinants of Health Risk Assessment: Administration of a social determinants of health risk assessment.
3. Community Health Integration Services: Person-centered planning, health system navigation, facilitating access to community-based resources, care coordination, and patient self-advocacy promotion services to address needs affecting medical problems.
4. Principal Illness Navigation Services: Similar to community health integration services for patients with a serious, high-risk condition, illness, or disease.

About the Listening Sessions

CMS OMH is interested in learning more about your uptake of the new services, barriers to adoption, ongoing questions related to implementation and billing, and opportunities to advance use of the health equity services for Medicare patients living in rural and tribal areas. The listening session will last no longer than 60 minutes. Participation is voluntary. You may choose not to answer any questions that you do not wish to answer. You can end your participation at any time. There are no expected risks to participating in this listening session.

CMS will use the information learned from these listening sessions, along with other data, to inform strategies that CMS and Health and Human Services (HHS) can take to support providers serving rural, tribal, and geographically isolated areas. Specifically, findings from this listening session will be included in reports for CMS that may be publicly available. In those reports, any information you provide and quotations of your comments will not be linked to your identity or role. All information collected will be kept secure to the extent permitted by law.

Session Dates

Please register for the listening session(s) you'd like to attend:

• Monday, August 12
  2:30 pm Central
  Providers Serving Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Areas
• Thursday, August 15
  9:30 am Central
  National Organizations Representing Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Providers
• Friday, August 23
  12:30 pm Central
  Technical Assistance Providers, State Offices of Rural Health
• Wednesday, August 28
  11:30 am Central
  Rural Health Clinics/Federally Qualified Health Centers Located in Rural Areas
• Monday, September 9
  2:30 pm Central
  IHS/Tribal Providers
• Tuesday, September 10
  2:30 pm Central
  Providers in U.S. Territories – Atlantic/Caribbean

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact RuralHealth@cms.hhs.gov or visit https://www.cms.gov/priorities/health-equity/rural-health.