As implementation dates of various provisions of the Medicaid Program: Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services final rule take effect, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is hosting a series of webinars to aid state compliance with the Access rule.

A September 16 webinar focused on provisions related to Critical Incident Management systems for home and community-based services programs.

Critical Incident Managements systems could have different names across states, and typically manage reports of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

The Access rule, finalized on April 22 as explained in this article, requires states to implement new or update existing systems to handle collection, tracking, and trending of incidents along with policy development by states to address and mitigate future incidents.

The next webinar, on Grievance Systems, will be held on December 11 at 3 PM ET. Register here.

Future events and dates are:

• February 12, 2025 at 3 pm Eastern: Timely Access and Waiting List Reporting, and Person Centered Planning Reporting & Minimum Performance Level. Register here.
• March 12, 2025 at 3 pm Eastern: Website Transparency. Register here.
• April 9, 2025 at 3 pm Eastern: HCBS Rate Transparency. Register here.
• May 14, 2025 at 3 pm Eastern: Medicaid Advisory Committee (MAC) and Beneficiary Advisory Council (BAC). Register here.
• June 11, 2025 at 3 pm Eastern: Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting*. Register here.

The CMS HCBS Access rule training site has resources for states including recordings, slides, and transcripts from prior trainings in the series. Information on upcoming webinars can be found on the site. This webinar’s focus will be the HCBS Quality Measure Set.

Keep up with the latest on this topic at our Access CMS: Significant Medicaid Rules Addressing Access and Quality serial post.