On June 13th, CMS issued a proposed rule that would update the Conditions of Participation that hospitals and critical access hospitals must meet to be reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid. Under the proposed rule, all hospitals would be required to implement infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship programs and establish policies that explicitly prohibit discrimination. The rule proposes several additional clarifications and revisions for hospitals and critical access hospitals.
CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until August 15th. The attached document summarizes several provisions of the proposed rule, which is available here.