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CMS has several ongoing priority activities involving the Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and Conditions for Coverage (CfCs) for certain health care providers. Below you will find key information about our most important activities. Reform of Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Conditions of Participation: CMS-3244 On October 24, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule, "Reform of Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Conditions of Participation." This proposed rule was developed through a retrospective review of existing regulations called for by President Obama's January 18, 2011 Executive Order 13563, to "modify, streamline, or repeal" regulations which impose unnecessary burdens, including on hospitals and other providers that must comply with requirements under Medicare. The CoPs are federal health and safety requirements ensuring high quality care for all patients. Hospitals and critical access hospitals must meet these conditions to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The proposed rule is designed to reduce the regulatory burden on hospitals by: • Eliminating burdensome requirements that do not permit hospital patients or their caregivers/support persons to self-administer certain medications.
• Allowing hospitals to determine the best ways to oversee and manage outpatients by removing the unnecessary requirement for a single Director of Outpatient Services.
• Increasing flexibility for hospitals by allowing one governing body to oversee multiple hospitals in a single health system.
• Enabling hospitals to have a single, interdisciplinary care plan that supports coordination of care instead of requiring a separate stand-alone nursing care plan.
• Allowing CAHs to provide certain services, including laboratory and radiology services, under arrangement. The final rule is targeted to publish in 2012. Regulatory Provisions to Promote Program Efficiency, Transparency, and Burden Reduction: CMS-9070 On October 24, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule that proposes reforms in CMS regulations that have been identified as unnecessary, obsolete, or excessively burdensome on health care providers and beneficiaries. This proposed rule would increase the ability of health care professionals to devote resources to improving patient care, by eliminating or reducing requirements that impede quality patient care or that divert resources away from providing the delivery of quality patient care. This rule would help reduce unnecessary burdens on health care providers, allowing them to dedicate more resources to improving patient care. Some of the more than two dozen proposed regulatory changes include: • Clarifying which End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) facilities are required to comply with the full federal Life Safety Code requirements. CMS estimates that this burden reduction could save an estimated $108.7 million for the ESRD program.
• Eliminating the specific list of emergency equipment Ambulatory Surgical Centers must have on hand, and allowing facilities, in conjunction with medical staff and their governing bodies, to develop policies and procedures that specify emergency equipment appropriate to the services they provide.
• Modifying the definition of "donor document" to clarify what constitutes a valid donor document to improve the ability of individuals to indicate their wishes regarding the donation of organs and tissues, while also emphasizing that it is the individual decision of the person donating and that he or she can state their wishes regarding the donation of organs and/or tissues rather than simply the choice to be a donor. We anticipate that this change in the definition of donor document would reduce the burden associated with vague and unclear designations. Long Term Care Facilities: Hospice Services: CMS-3140 On October 22, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule, "LTC Facilities: Hospice Services." This proposed rule would require a specific written agreement between LTC facilities and Medicare-certified hospice providers serving the LTC facility's residents who elect hospice care. By requiring this written agreement, the role of each provider will be better understood by both parties, resulting in better quality of care. This proposed rule corresponds with the requirements for hospices found at 42 CFR §418.112, entitled "Hospices that provide hospice care to residents of a SNF/NF or ICF/MR", published as part of the hospice final rule, CMS-3844-F, Hospice Care Conditions of Participation, in June of 2008. This proposed rule would help to ensure that LTC facilities and hospice providers work together to coordinate resident care by requiring a written agreement. The final rule is expected to publish in early 2012. Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Telemedicine: CMS-3227 We published a final rule in May 2011. This final rule revised the CoPs for both hospitals and CAHs. These revisions allow for a new credentialing and privileging process for physicians and practitioners providing telemedicine services. The purpose of the rule was to revise the credentialing and privileging process for telemedicine providers in hospitals and CAHs. Based on feedback from hospitals, CAHs, and other organizations we concluded that our present credentialing and privileging process requirements for telemedicine providers is duplicative and burdensome for physicians, practitioners, and hospitals. It is particularly burdensome for small hospitals, which often lack the resources to fully carry out the traditional credentialing and privileging process for all of the physicians and practitioners that may be able to provide telemedicine services. Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Visitation: CMS-3228 CMS published a final rule on November 17, 2010. This final rule revises the Medicare conditions of participation for hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to ensure visitation rights for all patients. Specifically, Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals and CAHs will be required to have written policies and procedures regarding the visitation rights of patients, including those setting forth any clinically necessary or reasonable restriction or limitation that the hospital or CAH may need to place on such rights as well as the reasons for the clinical restriction or limitation. Influenza Vaccination Standard for Certain Medicare Participating Providers and Suppliers: CMS-3213 CMS published a proposed rule on April 29, 2011 that would require certain Medicare providers and suppliers to offer all patients annual influenza vaccination during flu season, unless medically contraindicated or the patient or patient's representative declines vaccination. This proposed rule is intended to increase access to the vaccine, increase the number of patients receiving annual vaccination against seasonal influenza, and decrease the morbidity and mortality rate from influenza. Additionally, the proposed rule would require certain providers and suppliers to develop policies and procedures that would allow them to offer vaccinations for pandemic influenza, in case of a future pandemic influenza event for which a vaccine is developed. This proposed rule would apply to Hospitals (all types that participate in Medicare); Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs); Rural Health Clinics (RHCs); Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs); and End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Facilities. Requirements for Long Term Care Facilities: Notice of Facility Closure: CMS-3230 CMS published an interim final rule (IFC) with comment period, "LTC Facilities: Notice of Facility Closure" in January 2011. This IFC implements Section 6113 of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148). One of the requirements in section 6113 states, that in the case of a LTC facility closure, any individual who is the administrator of the facility provides written notification of the closure and a plan for the relocation of residents at least 60 days prior to the impending closure or, if the Secretary terminates the facility's participation in Medicare or Medicaid, not later than the date the Secretary determines appropriate. Emergency Preparedness Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participating Providers and Suppliers: CMS-3178 In response to concern about the ability of healthcare providers across the United States to plan for and respond to emergencies, the CMS is in the process of developing a proposed rule with emergency preparedness conditions of participation (CoP) and conditions for coverage (CfC) for all Medicare/Medicaid certified providers and suppliers ("providers"), excluding Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs). Thus, the proposed rule would apply to Hospitals; Religious Nonmedical Health Care Institutions (RNHCIs); Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs); Hospice; Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTFs); Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE); Transplant Centers; Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities; Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons w/ Mental Retardation (ICFs/MR); Home Health Agencies (HHAs); Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (CORFs); Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs); Clinics, Rehabilitation Agencies, and Public Health Agencies as Providers of Outpatient Physical Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology Services; Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs); Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs); and End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Facilities. Our goals are to address systemic gaps, such as those identified after the Gulf hurricanes, and to provide a regulatory framework to ensure that every provider has in place a comprehensive, coordinated emergency preparedness process that will provide consistency in meeting the needs of patients, residents, and clients across Federal, State, tribal, regional, and local emergency preparedness systems. The proposed rule is scheduled for publication in early 2012. Condition of Participation: Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC): CMS-3202 CMS published a proposed rule on June 17, 2011. This proposed rule establishes Conditions of Participation (CoP) for community mental health centers (CMHC). CMHC care is a comprehensive combination of mental health care services, which includes physician services, psychiatric nursing, counseling and social services. Under the proposed rule, the CMHC Conditions of Participation provide requirements for quality and safety, and focuses attention on meeting the specific needs of individual clients. Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASC): Conditions for Coverage: Same Day Services: CMS-3217 On October 24, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published an ASC Final Rule that will update the conditions for coverage regulations for Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs), based on a proposed rule CMS issued in April 2010. This new final rule simplifies requirements that ASCs must follow in notifying patients about their rights. Specifically, the final rule will allow ASCs to provide the patient, the patient's representative, or the patient's surrogate with patient rights information prior to the start of the surgical procedure. Before today's final rule, ASCs were required to notify patients in advance of the date of the procedure. This caused particular logistical problems and inconveniences for patients who needed ASC services on the same day they received a physician referral. Changes in Conditions of Participation and Payment for Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers (RHC/FQHC): CMS-1910 On June 27, 2008, CMS published a proposed rule entitled, Changes in Conditions of Participation Requirements and Payment Provisions; Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers that would require changes in conditions for certification and coverage (CfC) for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). This proposed rule would require RHCs to establish a quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) program that would enable the facility to review its operating systems and processes of care to identify and implement opportunities to improve the quality of patient care. This proposed rule would also add the following requirements for RHCs and FQHCs: maintain and document an infection control process, update the requirements under the emergency services standard and patient health records to reflect advancements in technology and treatment, update the regulations pertaining to waivers to the staffing requirements, and establish location requirements for new and existing RHCs. Anesthesia Supervision Effective November 13, 2001, CMS established an exemption for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) from the physician supervision requirement. This exemption recognized a Governor's written request to CMS attesting that he or she is aware of the State's right to an exemption of the requirement and that it is in the best interests of the State's citizens to exercise this exemption. As of October 2010, sixteen states have chosen to opt-out of the CRNA physician supervision regulation. The states are: California, Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Kansas, North Dakota, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Montana and Colorado.
Page Last Modified: 10/26/2011 10:35:18 AM
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