The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule Monday on telemedicine credentialing and privileging that aims to not only make the process less cumbersome for small hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs), but also to provide more timely care.  

The new rule will be published in the Federal Register on May 5 and will go into effect July 2, 2011.

The new rule revises the conditions of participation (CoPs) for both hospitals and CAHs. It allows rural hospitals to rely on information provided by the “distant-site telemedicine entity” to base its credentialing and privileging decisions regarding physicians and practitioners who will provide the consult.

The current Medicare hospital conditions of participation for credentialing and privileging of medical staff require the governing body of a hospital to make all privileging decisions based upon the recommendations of its medical staff after the medical staff has thoroughly examined and verified the credentials of practitioners applying for privileges. It also specifies specific criteria that must be used to determine whether an individual practitioner should be privileged at the hospital.

“CMS’ new rules will truly help patients receive the care they need, no matter where they live or where their doctor is located,” said Dale Alverson, MD, president of the American Telemedicine Association. “By eliminating the overly burdensome credentialing and privileging rules in Medicare, CMS has shown it’s growing support of telemedicine.

The new rule also stipulates that Medicare will now privilege telehealth practices such as teleradiology, teleICU and telestroke, whether they are delivered directly by the hospital or by an outside clinical vendor.

“CMS was very responsive to the comments and concerns of the telemedicine community,” said Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association. “The privileging of private telemedicine providers in Medicare hospitals was not in the draft rule; the subsequent addition of these vital telehealth service providers reflects the comments of ATA and it’s members.”

A full copy of the rule is available here.