THCA Notes

Volume XXXI, Number 10
October 2016

Release of Final Requirements of Participation

The final Requirements of Participation will be published in the Federal Register on October 4th. This final rule revised the requirements that Nursing Facilities must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. These changes were designed by CMS to reflect advances over the past several years in the theory and practice of service delivery and safety. The revisions are also an integral part of the CMS efforts to achieve broad-based improvements both in the quality of health care furnished through federal programs, and in patient safety.

The rule is 713 pages with almost 500 pages dedicated to responding to comments from the general public. The effective date of the rules will be November 28, 2016 with three phases of implementation. Attached is a list of the Implementation Timeframes from CMS.

A couple of changes in the final rule include:

There is no required staffing ratio in the final rule.
There is no requirement for a physician or physician extender to conduct an in-person evaluation of a patient prior to an unscheduled transfer to a hospital.

Stay tuned as more information becomes available.