10/30/2009

Plan Sponsor and Vendor Communication Webinars Are A Success

CMS' RDS Center hosted three RDS Community Information Group (CIG) webinars for Plan Sponsors and Vendors in September and October. The interactive format of these webinars encouraged Plan Sponsor and Vendor community participation and collaboration.

The initial webinar, Plan Sponsor and Vendor Communication: Business Challenges and Information Needs filled almost immediately. This prompted CMS' RDS Center to hold an additional webinar on the same topic. With attendance split evenly between Plan Sponsors and Vendors, the discussions focused on key points of communication for Plan Sponsors and Vendors during the plan year. Chat room discussion, question and answer sessions, and short polls about cost reporting and best practices proved extremely beneficial for information gathering.

All attendees from the initial webinars were invited to the Plan Sponsor and Vendor Communication: Follow-up and Solutions webinar. Its purpose was to discuss potential solutions to address the communication needs identified during the initial webinars. The information gathered in each of these webinars has steered CMS' RDS Center to develop and produce summary reports to assist with the coordination of cost reporting.

The enthusiastic participation from the Plan Sponsor and Vendor community made the webinars a great success. Feedback from each session was very positive, and indicated that the polling and question and answer sessions were the most popular features. Moving forward, CMS' RDS Center will work with volunteers on a series of best practices articles.

Due to the success of these webinars, CMS' RDS Center is planning a face-to-face meeting on December 9, 2009, at the Four Points by Sheraton near BWI Airport in Linthicum, MD, to discuss retiree processing, enrollment, and retiree list submission methods.