In This Issue:

CMS Issues Draft Revised Survey and Enforcement Guidance On SNF Advance Directives Policies and Implementation By Ken Burgess

In early October, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued draft revised guidance to surveyors on the responsibility of SNFs to have policies and procedures, and to properly implement and honor advance directives (living wills, health care powers of attorney, the MOST form) of residents. There’s good news and bad news in this.......

TriCare Network Contracts Create Affirmative Action Obligations for Health Care Providers By Susie Gibbons

The Office of Federal Contracts Compliance (OFCC P) has made no secret of its desire to impose affirmative action obligations on hospitals. It moved quite a bit closer to this goal last month by winning a case against a hospital that had signed a TriCare network contract. In OFCCP v. Florida Hospital of Orlando, the hospital challenged OFCCP’s jurisdiction over it, and the Administrative Law Judge ruled in OFCCP’s favor. While this case dealt with a hospital in Florida, hospitals here in North Carolina can expect to see OFCCP issuing Notices of Audit to facilities in North Carolina, because the Florida case is strong precedent supporting OFCCP’s jurisdiction over hospitals that contract to provide TriCare network services......

CMS Issues New Proposed Conditions of Participation for SNFs Providing or Arranging for Hospice Services By Ken Burgess, Jessica Lewis and Kim Licata

On October 22, 2010, CMS published proposed Medicare conditions of participation for SNFs that directly provide or arrange for the provision of hospice services in their facilities. CMS estimates that 35% of hospice patients nationally receive that service in SNFs. The proposed rule for SNFs follows, and closely parallels, revised Medicare conditions of participation for hospices issued by CMS in June 2008.....