MANY PEOPLE who travel through the South this time of year are taken not only with the change in autumn colors but also in an unbelievably lush green vine called kudzu that grows in more than 7 million acres in the South.
In 1930, this vine was the U.S. government Soil Services’ idea to help prevent erosion. However, the vine is now known as the “green menace,” a choking parasitic vine that kills all other vegetation and is impossible to eradicate.
It was a good idea gone badly.
Dialysis is no exception to such folly, as we have had our share of good ideas gone badly. Remember the 90-minute dialysis treatment three times a week for everyone? Initial implementation of the new ESRD Conditions for Coverage (CFC) has the potential to be the latest idea gone badly. Use of CROWNWeb for electronic data submission by Feb. 1, 2009, is mandatory. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), this is to support CMS’s goals of quality improvement and performance assessment, as well as to ensure prompt claims processing and reimbursement.
Let me say that I believe CROWNWeb will be in the best interest of the patients. Where the kudzu creeps in is under the current rules for early implementation of CROWNWeb. Only the Large Dialysis Organizations (LDOs) are allowed to batch submit clinical performance measures (CPM) data. Small Dialysis Organizations (SDOs) will be required to hand key in the CPM data one patient at a time. Let me say that again: Hand keyed one patient at a time. This is not an option. It is mandatory.
