The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is inviting suggestions for how it can eliminate Medicare regulations that (1) impose more stringent supervision requirements than existing state scope of practice laws, or (2) restrict health professionals from practicing at the top of their license. This comment solicitation, which is part of the Administration's "Patients over Paperwork" initiative, follows related regulatory changes adopted by CMS in other recent payment rules, including the 2020 Medicare home health and outpatient prospective payment system final rules, and the 2019 and 2020 Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) rules. For instance, in the 2019 PFS final rule, CMS somewhat liberalized the rules for supervision of certain diagnostic tests when performed by registered radiologist assistants (RRAs), consistent with their state scope of practice. Efforts have been ongoing to further expand Medicare rules to permit these RRAs to perform services for Medicare beneficiaries to the full extent of their state licenses.
The deadline for submitting recommendations is January 17, 2020.
This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.