WASHINGTON—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has started to recruit volunteer dialysis clinics for the second phase of CROWNWeb implementation that starts August 3, according to the National Renal Administrators Association’s June 26 Renal Watch email.
Ten facilities from each of the 18 End-Stage Renal Disease Networks will take part in the second phase, according to the NRAA. Half of the 180 clinics involved will be from large dialysis organizations, which include Fresenius, DaVita and Dialysis Clinic Inc. The other half will include small and mid-size providers.
The volunteer facilities will be identified by July 2 and the second phase of implementation will begin on August 3, according to the NRAA.
Federal rules released last year that govern how dialysis clinics must operate, said that all dialysis providers would be required to turn in patient information (such as events, forms and lab data) using electronic data-submission software called CROWNWeb, which will be available to facilities through a secure Internet site.
All dialysis clinics were to implement CROWNWeb in February, but in response to mounting pressure from the renal community, Medicare said in mid-January that it would scale back the implementation of CROWNWeb to further study a disparity between small dialysis providers and large dialysis providers.
“CROWNWeb Phase 2 comes about only after working closely with our Phase 1 facilities to understand how end users will interact with CROWNWeb," said Matt McDonough, Communications Manager for the CROWNWeb Training Support Team.
The first phase-in in February included eight dialysis facilities from Networks 3, 8, 12 and 16—which cover 15 states and territories in the northeast, south, midwest and northwest regions of the United States
“Through extensive discussion with these users, CMS was able to address some facility concerns that arose, as well as identify opportunities for improving the user experience in CROWNWeb,” McDonough added. “Only after understanding this information were we comfortable with proceeding to Phase 2, which opens up CROWNWeb access for a much larger number of users and is the natural progression towards a full nationwide release.”
