Title: Rural Hospital Regulatory Relief Act of 2019
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Rural Hospital Regulatory Relief Act of 2019
This bill permanently extends the rule to not enforce the Medicare direct-supervision requirements for outpatient, therapeutic services at critical access hospitals and small, rural hospitals. Such rule permits therapeutic services to be administered at such hospitals outside a physician or nonphysician practitioner's presence.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 895 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 895

To provide for a permanent extension of the enforcement instruction on 
    supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in 
               critical access and small rural hospitals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 27, 2019

Mr. Thune (for himself and Ms. Stabenow) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for a permanent extension of the enforcement instruction on 
    supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in 
               critical access and small rural hospitals.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rural Hospital Regulatory Relief Act 
of 2019''.

SEC. 2. PERMANENT EXTENSION OF ENFORCEMENT INSTRUCTION ON SUPERVISION 
              REQUIREMENTS FOR OUTPATIENT THERAPEUTIC SERVICES IN 
              CRITICAL ACCESS AND SMALL RURAL HOSPITALS.

    Section 1834 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(x) Permanent Extension of Enforcement Instruction on Supervision 
Requirements for Outpatient Therapeutic Services in Critical Access and 
Small Rural Hospitals.--On and after the date of the enactment of this 
subsection, the Secretary shall continue to apply the enforcement 
instruction described in the notice of the Centers for Medicare & 
Medicaid Services entitled `Enforcement Instruction on Supervision 
Requirements for Outpatient Therapeutic Services in Critical Access and 
Small Rural Hospitals for CY 2013', dated November 1, 2012 (providing 
for an exception to the restatement and clarification under the final 
rulemaking changes to the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective 
payment system and calendar year 2009 payment rates (published in the 
Federal Register on November 18, 2008, 73 Fed. Reg. 68702 through 
68704) with respect to requirements for direct supervision by 
physicians for therapeutic hospital outpatient services), and extended 
by section 1 of Public Law 113-198, section 1 of Public Law 114-112, 
section 16004(a) of the 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255), 
and section 51007 of the Bipartisan Budget Act (Public Law 115-123), 
and reinstated for calendar years 2018 and 2019 under the final rule 
entitled `Medicare Program: Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and 
Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems and Quality Reporting 
Programs' published on December 14, 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 59216).''.
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