CMS revises timeline for EMTALA, restraint/seclusion investigations

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week announced changes to the timeline for state surveyors to investigate in hospitals or critical access hospitals complaints specific to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act or to deaths associated with restraint or seclusion. To align these two types of investigations with other potential immediate jeopardy investigations in non-long term care facilities that participate in Medicare, the changes require that surveyors be onsite to initiate the investigation within two business days and then promptly complete the survey without interruption, CMS said. Previously, surveyors were required to complete these investigations within five business days.