In February of this year, the Office of the Medicare Ombudsman (OMO) began hosting an Open Door Forum (ODF) series to provide an opportunity for beneficiaries, their caregivers and advocates to publicly interact with the Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman. The ODF helps the Ombudsman to better understand what people with Medicare are experiencing and to hear ideas for making those experiences better. The purpose of this message is to solicit feedback on potential topics for our upcoming ODF.

The Medicare Ombudsman learns about issues from various sources (e.g., SHIPs, 1-800-MEDICARE, CMS regional offices, etc.). As beneficiary advocates, we want you to tell us what topics are currently impacting beneficiaries that we should discuss via the Medicare Ombudsman’s ODFs.

The OMO would like to hear your recommendations on potential topics for our next ODF in July 2006. The topics should be systemic in nature and specific to beneficiaries’ experiences in accessing Medicare services and/or their understanding of their rights and protections. Please fully describe the topic in terms of the information and/or questions that you would like to have addressed.

Please send your topics to this email address with the subject line "Topics for July 2006 ODF." Responses received by 12 Noon ET on June 16, 2006 will be considered for the upcoming ODF.

Thank you for your participation in the Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman ODF.

“The Voice for Medicare Beneficiaries”