Supervision bill aims to protect rural access to outpatient services

Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Jon Tester (D-MT), and John Thune (R-SD) today introduced the Protecting Access to Rural Therapy Services (PARTS) Act (S. 257), AHA-supported legislation that would allow general supervision by a physician or non-physician practitioner for many outpatient therapeutic services. The bill would require the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to adopt a default setting of general supervision (rather than direct supervision) for outpatient therapeutic services, and create an advisory panel to establish an exceptions process for risky and complex outpatient services that require a higher, direct level of supervision. The legislation also would create a special rule for critical access hospitals that recognizes their unique size and Medicare conditions of participation, and hold hospitals and CAHs harmless from civil or criminal action regarding CMS’s retroactive reinterpretation of “direct supervision” requirements for the period 2001 through 2015.