CMS Incorporates Visitation Rights into Conditions of Participations for Hospitals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently revised the Conditions of Participation (CoP) for hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to include new visitation rights for Medicare and Medicaid patients. CMS was tasked with updating the CoP under President Obama’s Presidential Memorandum on hospital visitation rights and the obstacles certain individuals face when visiting loved ones in the hospital because the individual does not fit the definition of a family member. The new requirements give patients the right to choose who may or may not visit them while in the hospital. Hospitals and CAHs must now develop and implement policies and procedures that address patients’ visitation rights and any clinically necessary or reasonable restrictions and limitations the organization may need to impose on such rights. Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Changes to the Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Conditions of Participation To Ensure Visitation Rights for All Patients, 75 Fed. Reg. 223, 70831‐70844. (Nov. 19, 2010).