Developing Issue UPDATE: CMS and Temporary Privileges

As discussed in the August 12 posting to the NAMSS Blog, CMS implied during a NAMSS webinar that the hospital governing body is the only body authorized to grant temporary privileges to practitioners. This interpretation is not standard practice and conflicts with the standards and processes put forth by the Joint Commission, Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP), and other CMS-approved accrediting bodies that have long been viewed as being compliant with CMS’ Conditions of Participation (CoP). In response, NAMSS provided comments to CMS urging a reconsideration of this recent interpretation and the continuation of the current national practice of granting temporary privileges in order to ensure that healthcare entities are able to provide timely patient care (click here for the letter). CMS has provided a response to NAMSS, stating they will be “evaluating methods to address how hospitals can meet their need to grant privileges between regularly scheduled governing body meetings, and, at the same time, continue to comply with the Medicare hospital CoP” (click here for the letter). Stay tuned to the NAMSS Blog for updates as we learn more from CMS.