QUESTION:        Are there new Medicare Conditions of Participation (“COPs”) for hospitals and critical access hospitals (“CAHs”)?

ANSWER:          Yes. As background, on March 4, 2020, CMS issued guidance stating that hospitals should inform certain individuals and entities regarding persons who have COVID-19. This week, as alluded to in Your Government at Work, CMS issued an interim final rule (“IFC”) which requires hospitals and CAHs to report data regarding COVID-19 in a standardized format. The new COPs are at §§ 482.42(e) for hospitals and 485.640(d) for CAHs, and the purpose is to track the incidence and impact of COVID-19 to help public health officials detect outbreaks.

The IFC emphasizes that the new COPs “do not relieve a hospital or a CAH, respectively, of its obligation to continue to comply with §§ 482.42(a)(3) or 485.640(a)(3), each of which requires a facility to address any infection prevention and control issues identified by public health authorities.”

The new COPs will become effective once the IFC is published in the Federal Register.