Users Tangled Up in New CMS Web Site

BALTIMORE–CMS’ newly designed Web site is causing headaches for
some users who are reporting broken links and difficulties
adjusting to the new format, participants said at the agency’s Home
Health, Hospice and DME Open Door Forum last week.

Last month, CMS overhauled its extensive site and replaced it
with a Flash-based version featuring “improved navigation and
content organization, current information and an improved Google
search feature,” the agency said.

But with all of the content reorganized, users’ bookmarks have
been rendered obsolete, and some are having trouble navigating the
site. “I just find it difficult to find the information I need,”
one phone-in caller said during the session on Wednesday.

Another caller reported “significant issues finding information”
on home health. “We’re having an extremely difficult time directing
providers … when we go to the home health section of the Web
site, none of the links that are provided are working,” she
said.

After the launch of the new site, CMS announced that it put more
than 400 redirects in place, but many links to invalid pages have
not yet been replaced. A CMS official acknowledged the problem, and
the links to the home health portion of the site were repaired by
the end of the week.

Even one CMS representative commented that after the move to the
new site, many of her bookmarks were rendered invalid, and she had
to figure out where the new pages were located.

To read a more detailed explanation on the Web site’s new
structure, view a Flash demonstration, or submit feedback, click
here.

To access the new DMEPOS home page, which includes links to the
pages most commonly used by DME providers, click here.

Also at the Open Door Forum:

–Ann Howard of the American Association for Homecare
recommended that CMS hold a special Open Door Forum on the upcoming
transition from Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carriers to
Medicare Administrative Contractors (see HomeCare
Monday, Jan. 9). “The supplier community would like the
opportunity to participate in the transition to the new MACs, ask
questions and raise issues and concerns,” she said.
–Jane Thorpe of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (see
HomeCare
Monday, Dec. 12, 2005) asked if CMS had an estimate of when
the competitive bidding rule for DME would be released and when the
first round of DMEPOS supplier standards would be finalized. CMS’
response to both questions: “We have no one to speak on
that.”
–One caller expressed frustration after CMS officials were unable
to provide answers to various questions and requested that the
agency publish both questions asked during the Open Door meetings
and the answers given, whether in person or later by e-mail. “I
noticed there are not a lot of people there to answer questions,”
the caller said. “When people ask questions, [they] are being told
to e-mail, so they get the answers, but no one else does.” A CMS
official responded that answers to questions are addressed at a
following Open Door Forum if they are of national interest. With
certain issues, she said, the agency would consider addressing
questions via listserv announcement.

The next Open Door Forum is scheduled for Feb. 14.