On Oct. 29, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a proposed rule revising discharge planning requirements for hospitals, critical access hospitals (CAHs), and home health agencies that are reimbursed by the Medicare and Medicaid programs, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA).
In the proposed rule, hospitals and CAHs would be required to have discharge plans for all inpatients and some outpatients, including same-day patients receiving anesthesia or moderate sedation, the AHA says. Also included are observation patients and emergency department patients whom a practitioner identifies as needing a discharge plan.
“This rule is designed to address ‘less-than-optimal outcomes’ from the current discharge process that lead to complications, adverse events, and readmissions of patients,” says Mark Mayo, CASC, executive director of Golf Surgical Center in Des Plaines, IL. The other purpose noted is that patients and their caregivers are not as involved in the discharge planning process as they could be.
Under the proposed rule, the discharge planning process would be required to consider the patient’s goals and preferences, as well as specific quality, resource use, and other measures, as required by the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014. The rule doesn’t propose specific quality measures. Additionally, the rule proposes that the discharge planning process must involve the patient’s practitioner.
For at least some patients who are discharged to home, hospitals and CAHs would need to establish a post-discharge follow-up process. However, CMS doesn’t specify the details of the follow-up programs. When patients are being transferred, hospitals, CAHs, and home health agencies would have to provide specific medical information to the facility that is receiving the patient.
The proposed rule was published in the Nov. 3 Federal Register, and there is a 60-day comment period. To access the proposed rule, go to http://bit.ly/1LE4Fiy.
