Senate Passes Critical Access Hospital Direct Supervision Moratorium For 2014

The Senate on Thursday (Nov. 20) passed hospital-backed legislation to keep CMS from implementing “direct supervision” rules for outpatient services in critical access hospitals in 2014. The bill passed the House in September, and the legislation will now go to the president. Critical access hospitals have so far been exempt from a direct supervision requirement, which says that a supervising physician must be present in a department at all times when Medicare beneficiaries are receiving outpatient services. The bill the...