The Center for Medicare and Medicai...

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has propos just discovered conditions of participation for hospices that are designed to ease the regulatory capacity for hospice providers and improve the quality of care for all hospice patients, including the expanding population of Medicare patients choosing this benefit. subject to the proposed rule, the hospice conditions of participation would provide more attention to meeting the specific distresss of individual patients. Changes and additions to the passing from hand to hand rule would include adding a patient assessment requirement to make secure that all patient needs are identified onward a timely basis; replacing the quality assurance requirement with a more comprehensive quality assessment and performance improvement condition to enable hospices to take tailored proactive grades to ensure quality care; allowing hospices to contract for core services in certain situations; and removing the requirement that a registered nourish at the breast provide patient care in an inpatient facility onward a 24-hour basis. Public elucidations on the proposed rule will be accepted until July 27 2005

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians

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