CMS Proposes Removing Requirements for Unnecessary Rules

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Compliance

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced  a proposed rule, “Medicare & Medicaid Programs; Requirements for Long-Term Care Facilties: Regulatory Provisions to Promote Efficiency and Transparency” (CMS-3347-P).

CMS-3347-P would remove requirements for participation identified as unnecessary, obsolete, or excessively burdensome on long-term care (LTC) facilities. Click To Tweet This proposed rule would increase facilities’ ability to devote their resources to improving resident care.

The proposed rule would, among other provisions:

  • Reduce  the frequency that LTC facilities are required to conduct a facility assessment.
  • Allow LTC facilities the flexibility to streamline their compliance and ethics programs. 
  • Reduce the requirements for individuals responsible for the compliance and ethics program and reduce the frequency for the program’s review.
  • Increase flexibility by providing that those who have performed as the director of food and nutrition services for a minimum of two years by allowing them to continue doing so without obtaining additional certification. Newly hired directors of food and nutrition services or those with less than two years of experience would need to complete, at a minimum, a course in food safety and management.
  • Allow facilities greater flexibility in tailoring their Quality Assurance Program Improvement (QAPI) program to the specific needs of their individual facility by eliminating prescriptive requirements.
  • Update Informal Dispute Resolution (and independent process) by adding timeframes on process, and increased provider transparency. Reduce  the frequency that LTC facilities are required to conduct a facility assessment.
  • Allow LTC facilities the flexibility to streamline their compliance and ethics programs. 
  • Reduce the requirements for individuals responsible for the compliance and ethics program and reduce the frequency for the program’s review.

In order to give facilities enough time to respond to these proposed changes, CMS also proposes to delay the implementation of certain phase 3 QAPI and compliance and ethics related requirements that are directly impacted by the proposed changes in the regulation to one year following the effective date of this proposed rule, if finalized, to avoid confusion and promote transparency