CMS announces regulatory reforms for hospitals, providers
On October 18, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced two sets of regulatory reforms designed to improve transparency, help providers operate more efficiently by reducing their regulatory burden and save hospitals and healthcare providers more than $5 billion over five years. These reforms will affect Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and a broad range of health care providers and suppliers.
Under the proposed rule, the Medicare Conditions of Participations, CAHs could provide certain services, including laboratory and radiology services. It would also allow multiple hospitals in a single health system to have one governing body.
The Medicare Regulatory Reform, another proposed rule, updates e-prescribing technical requirements to allow Medicare Prescription Drug Plans meet current standards. The reform also eliminates the current Medicare requirement that automatically deactivates a provider or supplier who has not submitted a claim for 12 consecutive months. This will keep providers from being barred from re-enrolling in Medicare for a certain period of time.
To view the regulatory reforms, please visit www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx.