CMS tries to strengthen specialty hospital rules

A hospital payment regulation calls for new policies on disclosing to patients information on physician ownership and ability to handle emergencies.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. June 11, 2007.

Washington -- Proposed regulations and new guidance from the federal government aim to address concerns that specialty hospitals are failing to adequately prepare for patient health emergencies.

A proposed Medicare inpatient hospital payment rule released in April would require every facility to inform its patients when physicians have investments in the hospital or when a referring doctor has an ownership stake. The rule also proposes requiring a hospital to let patients know when it does not have a policy that at least one physician must be working at the facility at any given time to handle emergencies.

In a separate guidance document clarifying existing statute, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in late April reminded hospitals that they are responsible for adequately preparing for medical emergencies. Facilities do not need to have physicians staffed all the time or to maintain emergency departments, but they must be able to evaluate people with emergencies, provide initial stabilizing treatment and transfer patients to other hospitals when needed.

"Any hospital participating in Medicare, regardless of the type of hospital and apart from whether the hospital has an emergency department, must have the capability to provide basic emergency care interventions," said CMS Acting Administrator Leslie V. Norwalk.

Although the proposed rule and the guidance apply to all hospitals that participate in Medicare, the latest developments are in response to recent criticism about physician-owned specialty hospitals.