CMS Publishes LTC Hospice Requirements Final Rule

 On June 27th, 2013, CMS published the final rule establishing new requirements for the provision of hospice care in SNFs/NFs, and specifically focuses on certain information that must be in an agreement between a hospice and a nursing center.  The Final Rule is effective August 26th, 2013.  Please click here to access a copy.  The CMS summary of the rule is below:
We are adopting the provisions of this final rule as proposed, with the following changes:

• We originally proposed the standard regarding LTC facility/Hospice cooperation at §483.75(r); however, during the process of finalizing this rule, CMS published a separate interim final rule, Requirements for Long- Term Care (LTC) Facilities; Notice of Facility Closure (76 FR 9503). The interim final rule added standards §483.75(r) and (s). Since the standards at §483.75(r) and (s) are now in use, we are finalizing this standard at §483.75(t).

• In consideration of public comments, we are making three substantive changes in this final rule. We have made a revision at 483.75(t)(3) to clarify that the LTC representative must have a clinical background, function within their State scope of practice act, and have the ability to assess the resident or have access to someone that has the skills and capabilities to assess the resident. We have also made a revision to the requirement at §483.75(t)(3)(iii) removing the phrase “other physicians” and replacing it with “other practitioners.” Lastly, we have made a revision to the requirement at §483.75(t)(2)(ii)(E)(3) by removing the phrase “that is not related to the terminal condition.”

Technical Correction
• We are finalizing the proposed technical correction which would fix an incorrect citation at §483.10(n). In §483.10(n), we are revising the reference “§483.20(d)(2)(ii)” to read “§483.20(k)(2)(ii).”
• We are also finalizing the proposed technical correction which would fix an incorrect citation at proposed §483.75(r)(4). In §483.75(t)(4), we are revising the reference “483.20(k)” to read “483.25.”