CMS expands provider e-mail service

June 1, 2004 WASHINGTON - CMS has expanded the Medicare information that is available immediately to health care  providers via electronic mail, thereby helping providers give beneficiaries the highest quality care, CMS Administrator Mark McClellan announced last week. CMS has now completed a series of listservs for Medicare providers. The newest listservs are for durable medical equipment suppliers, acute inpatient hospitals and inpatient psychiatric facilities. CMS had previously established a number of listservs for Medicare providers, including physicians, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. A listserv is an electronic mailing list service for those interested in receiving news. Providers and others with access to the Internet and an e-mail address can sign up for a particular listserv and receive from CMS up-to-the-minute information about providers on that listserv. "One of the key goals of the President's Electronic Government Initiative is to make it easier for citizens and providers to get services from their government," Dr. McClellan said.  "In line with this initiative, CMS is developing educational resources and informational tools, such as listservs, to be consistent with our goal of enhancing responsiveness and improving communications with providers, physicians and others in the health care community." Other provider listservs previously established at CMS are for ambulances, ambulatory surgical centers, dialysis facilities, federally qualified health centers, hospices, hospital outpatient departments, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals and rural health clinics. The signup for a provider listserv is at www.cms.hhs.gov/mailinglists. "Medicare Providers" is selected from the dropdown menu and the signee can subscribe to one or more listservs.  The signee can also link from a provider-specific Web page, which can be accessed by clicking on "Providers" from the CMS home page.