The Alliance provided comments to CMS' Request for Information; National Directory of Healthcare Providers & Services requesting that wound care and/or wound management services be identified within the directory. "The Alliance is supportive of a National Directory but is concerned that CMS will only list providers with recognized specialties. The practice of wound care is not limited to one particular medical specialty. Instead, there are many different specialists who treat patients with chronic wounds. These practitioners include but are not limited to the following: surgeons (e.g., general surgeons, vascular surgeons, plastic surgeons, and foot and ankle surgeons), vascular medicine physicians, physical medicine & rehabilitation physicians who often manage chronic wounds and amputees, podiatrists, dermatologists, nurses and nurse practitioners, infectious disease experts, physical therapists, registered dieticians, nutritionists, and primary care physicians who are in the full time practice of managing patients with wounds." In order to help patients find access to wound management services there should be a category created for providers that treat chronic wounds, the Alliance wrote.

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