CMS recently released a proposed rule updating the Conditions of Participation (CoP) for 6,228 hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAH) that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. By incorporating elements of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Quality Strategy and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Strategy to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, CMS says the revisions aim to reduce readmissions; ease barriers to care; stem hospital-acquired conditions, including infections; address workforce shortages; and advance non-discrimination protections. Comments on the proposed rule are due by Aug. 15.
The implication of these and various other provisions will cost the industry between $773 million to $1.1 billion, according to the CMS. However, CMS also expects complying with the various parts of the policy will result in a net savings of up to $284 million.
“Working with tools provided by the Affordable Care Act, hospitals have taken significant steps to improve safety and quality in the past several years. Already, efforts to reduce healthcare-associated infections have resulted in reducing health care costs by nearly $20 billion and saving 87,000 lives,” said Kate Goodrich, M.D., M.H.S., Director, Center for Clinical Standards & Quality, CMS. “This proposal further supports hospitals’ safety and quality efforts by requiring all Medicare and Medicaid hospitals to have designated leaders in charge of specialized programs to prevent infections, improve antibiotic use, and follow nationally recognized guidelines.”
Rule Details
Highlights of the rule include a requirement that hospitals must have infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship programs for healthcare-related infections and for the appropriate use of antibiotics. In addition, hospitals would be required to designate qualified leaders of such programs. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, the American Hospital Association said, “The emphasis on good infection control and antibiotic stewardship is consistent with the important work hospitals are doing to reduce infections and preserve the effectiveness of our current antibiotics. We join CMS in recognizing the importance of these programs and are always looking to make them more effective.”
The rule further requires hospital adopt non-discrimination policies on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex and gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability. CMS specifically says that “discriminatory behavior, or even the fear of discriminatory behavior, by healthcare providers remains an issue and can create barriers to care and result in adverse outcomes for patients.” The rule also proposes a clarification of the requirement for patient access to their health records to account for the electronic format in which records may be accessible. It notes that “the patient has the right to access their medical records, including current medical records, upon an oral or written request, in the form and format requested by the individual, if it is readily producible in such form and format (including in an electronic form or format when such medical records are maintained electronically); or, if not, in a readable hard copy form or such other form and format as agreed to by the facility and the individual, within a reasonable time frame.”
This rule will also enable hospitals to create a policy that specifies the outpatient departments which would not be required to have a registered nurse physically present and alternative staffing plans established under such a policy. Hospitals would also be required to incorporate quality indicator data related to hospital admission and hospital-acquired conditions. Hospitals already compile data for the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program, the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs, and the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting program.
CMS further proposes that a patient’s medical record contain information to justify all admissions and continued hospitalizations, support the diagnoses, describe the patient’s progress and responses to medications and services, and document all inpatient stays and outpatient visits to reflect all services provided to the patient. The agency notes that it emphasizes “the distinctions between discharges and transfers as well as between inpatients and outpatients by proposing to revise §482.24(c)(4)(viii) so that the content of the medical record would contain final diagnoses with completion of medical records within 30 days following all inpatient stays, and within 7 days following all outpatient visits.”
Some of the other proposals in the rule include changing the existing “licensed independent practitioner” term to only “licensed practitioner” which is intended to facilitate hospitals’ use of physician assistants as appropriate. CMS also establishes a requirement that a CAH develop, implement, maintain and evaluate its own QAPI program to monitor and improve patient care and a requirement that individual patient nutritional needs are met in accordance with recognized dietary practices and the orders of the attending practitioner or a qualified, state-approved nutrition professional.