CMS cuts red tape to save providers millions

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has issued a set of final regulatory changes that it says will save healthcare providers nearly $660 million annually, and $3.2 billion over five years.

Together with another rule finalized in 2012, these regulatory changes have the potential to save providers more than $8 billion over the next five years according to CMS’s estimates.

The changes should go into effect on July 11 if published in Monday’s Federal Register. They are CMS’s response to a 2011 executive order from President Obama for all federal agencies to periodically review their regulations to identify those that may have become unnecessary, redundant or overly burdensome and then change those regulations to fix problems and achieve regulatory aims in a more streamlined fashion.

CMS’s regulatory changes cover 201 pages and include many small fixes that together may impact nearly all providers that serve Medicare and Medicaid patients. These include:

• The elimination of an outdated requirement in the age of telemedicine that a physician be held to a prescriptive schedule for being onsite at small critical access hospitals, as well as rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers.  
• A change to allow registered dietitians and qualified nutritionists to order patient diets directly without requiring the preapproval of a physician or other practitioner.
• The elimination of some requirements that ambulatory surgical centers must meet in order to provide certain radiological services needed as part of surgical procedures.
• A modification to permit hospitals’ trained nuclear medicine technicians to prepare radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine without the supervising physician or pharmacist constantly being present.
• The removal of a redundant data submission requirement and an unnecessary survey process for transplant centers.
• A reclassification of hospital swing-bed services as optional to allow CMS-approved accrediting bodies to evaluate swing-bed requirements and no longer require hospitals to get an additional State survey agency to issue swing bed approvals.
• Elimination of a now outdated requirement that critical access hospitals must develop their patient care policies with the advice of “at least one member who is not a member of the CAH staff.

“By eliminating stumbling blocks and red tape we can assure that the health care that reaches patients is more timely, that it’s the right treatment for the right patient, and greater efficiency improves patient care across the board,” said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner in a press release announcing the final rule’s publication.

Of course, with any change, there can be unintended consequences. The American Hospital Association noted that it was reviewing all of the changes and would issue directions to members. The full changes can be viewed here.