The House has passed a bill that will stop CMS from enforcing a regulation requiring outpatient therapeutic service supervision at critical access hospitals and rural hospitals.
The measure — sponsored by Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) would keep the requirement from applying to small, rural hospitals through the end of calendar year 2014. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) has praised the passage of the legislation; Sen. Thune co-authored a similar bill, which the Senate passed in February.
In 2009, CMS reinterpreted existing policies concerning outpatient therapeutic services — such as drug infusions, blood transfusions and cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services — to require supervising physicians to oversee outpatient therapy services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. Although the agency delayed enforcement of this supervision requirement from 2009 to 2013 for critical access facilities and other small, rural hospitals, it began enforcing the measure this year, according to Sen. Thune's office.