The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) issued a notice on Monday stating that the supervision requirement for Outpatient Therapeutic Services will not be enforced for Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). This is good news as most CAHs were not able to comply with the recent outpatient prospective patient system rule of “direct supervision” for therapeutic services furnished in hospital outpatient departments. The “direct supervision” rule unfortunately still applies to rural hospitals who are not CAHs and who will still face a difficult time complying with the CMS rule. The delay in enforcement for CAHs is through the end of 2010. CRHC will be working with our CAHs and organizational partners to make permanent changes to this rule to ensure that CAHs and rural hospitals will be able to comply with future supervision requirements.
