CMS has taken a small step to implement President Obama’s executive order instructing federal agencies to eliminate regulations that obsolete or overly burdensome to business.
On October 24, 2011 CMS published the final rule revising Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) conditions for coverage to allow patient rights information to be provided to the patient, the patient’s representative, or the patient’s surrogate “prior to the start of” the procedures, rather than “in advance of the date” of the procedure. That essentially allows “same day” notice when appropriate, rather than requiring two separate visits.
