A rule change — released by CMS in October 2015 that could be enacted before President Barack Obama leaves office — would require hospitals to help patients choose a high-quality location for post-acute care.
This would be in stark contrast to current Medicare rules, which state that hospitals cannot restrict patients' post-acute care choices, NPR reported.
The rule change was drafted in fall 2015 and states hospitals "must assist the patients, their families, or the patient's representative in selecting a post-acute care provider by using and sharing data" about care quality relevant to the patient, according to NPR.
Many hospitals simply provide patients with a list of post-acute care providers in the area with no quality information, as "hospitals are not sure that it would be seen as appropriate and so they don't want to take the chance that some surveyor will come around an cite them," Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety at the American Hospital Association, told NPR. The new rule would change that.
"This signals that it's OK for knowledgeable folks to really engage in that conversation with patients and their families," Ms. Foster said.
But some providers have already taken steps to steer patients to higher quality post-acute care providers without limiting their choices. For instance, NPR noted Boston-based Partners HealthCare has a preferred list of 67 nursing homes in Massachusetts selected based on the quality of care they provide.
The Obama administration has not mentioned if and when the rule change would be enacted. According to the NPR report, if it is not enacted before President Obama leaves office, it may never become official under President-elect Donald Trump.