“Our CSA was contacted by a representative of the local hospital, who explained that our transfer contract could be compromised if we offer a new procedure to our CSA,” Ty Tippets, administrator of the St. George(Utah) Center for Electricity, said in a commentary. 1. CMS removes the ASC hospital transfer requirement in the new Rule 1. CSA does not require a written transfer contract or hospital planning privileges for all physicians. Centres must provide hospitals with a document containing information about their surgery and patient population. Currently, operating centres must have a written transfer contract with a hospital to transfer a patient or ensure that all doctors who perform an operation have privileges at a nearby hospital. Proposed Rule: CMS proposed to remove the requirements for 42 CFR 416.41 (b) (3), “Standard: Hospitalization” for a CSA, in order to have a written transmission agreement or hospital admission privileges for all physicians practising within the CSA. According to the CMS, this should in part “remove the barriers to competition that currently exist in some situations where hospitals that provide outpatient surgical services refuse to sign written transfer contracts or grant admission privileges to physicians operated on in CSA.” ASCA has been working with CMS for years to address this issue. As the rule states, emergency measures under the Emergency Medical Treatment – Labor Act (EMTALA) would continue to involve the emergency transmission of a CSA patient to a nearby hospital. CMS stated that it had received a shared feedback in support of and against this proposed amendment. ASCA members can access resources that break down the load reduction rule. These include a table that directly shows changes to the CSA`s (CFC) coverage conditions and a pager that shares medical history and physical assessment (H-Ps) conditions and transfer agreements.
The amendments will take effect on November 29, 2019. Supporters of the hospital say they fear that a removal of the requirement could put patients at risk. In emergency situations, when a patient needs to be transferred from a CSA to a hospital, the host hospital must quickly know the details of the moving patient, such as the type of operation performed, the anesthesia used and the problems encountered, Marilyn Litka-Klein, vice president of the Michigan Health Hospital Association, said in a commentary. Hospital industry leaders are urging the CMS to abandon a proposal that would make the need for a written transfer agreement redundant when an outpatient operations centre attempts to transfer a patient to the hospital. Operational centres continued to insist on the CMS to eliminate the need for a transfer contract.