by
Astrid Fiano, DOTmed News Writer | June 17, 2010
Telemedicine rules extended
The Joint Commission has announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed the Joint Commission's requirement to implement CMS telemedicine standards for both general and critical access hospitals until March 2011.
The extension is due to CMS's proposed rule on telemedicine. The proposed rule is open for comment until July 26. The Joint Commission plans to comment and urges hospitals to do the same.
The CMS proposed rule can be found by searching regulations.gov with the file number CMS-3227-P. Instructions for commenting on the rule are included. The proposed rule would revise the conditions of participation for both hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs). This includes revisions for a new credentialing and privileging process for physicians and practitioners providing telemedicine services. (See DM 12809 for details on the proposed rule.)
The Joint Commission said up until the CMS extension, Joint Commission-accredited hospitals would have had to implement new performance elements by July 15, 2010, for Medicare's credentialing and privileging requirement for telehealth services. That deadline does not now have to be met due to the extension.
The Joint Commission explains in its statement that after standards to telemedicine credentialing and privileging by proxy were announced in 2009, it has been in contact with CMS and Congress about the issue. The Joint Commission said that it "believes that there would be an adverse effect on the access to some telehealth services if organizations are not allowed to comply with the original Joint Commission requirements addressing credentialing and privileging by proxy." The Joint Commission also commented that the CMS requirements would also place undue burden without improvement in quality of services, accountability and effectiveness of the credentialing and privileging processes.
The Joint Commission's statement can be accessed at: http://www.jointcommission.org/AccreditationPrograms/Hospitals/telemed_requirements_hap_cah_delayed.htm
