Bunning-Nelson Introduce Preserving Patient Access To Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act

BUNNING-NELSON INTRODUCE PRESERVING PATIENT ACCESS TO INPATIENT REHABILITATION HOSPITALS ACT OF 2007

U.S. Senators Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) today introduced the "Preserving Patient Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act of 2007." This bipartisan piece of legislation will protect patient access to much-needed, intensive inpatient rehabilitation care across the country.

"For too long CMS has held rehabilitation hospitals to an unfair standard," said Bunning. "This legislation will ensure rehabilitation facilities can continue to care for critically ill patients without having to turn patients away. I look forward to working with Senator Ben Nelson on this very important piece of legislation."

The "Preserving Patient Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act of 2007" would alter a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that requires rehabilitation hospitals have seventy-five percent of their patients in at least one specified condition (i.e. stroke, brain injury, etc). The seventy-five percent rule unfairly forces hospitals to turn away patients based on arbitrary compliance levels, rather than actual medical needs and physician determinations.

The legislation introduced today would extend indefinitely the current compliance threshold at sixty percent. The bill would also allow rehabilitation hospitals to continue counting patients with co-morbidities in their compliance percentage. Currently, facilities can count co-morbidities, but will not be able to do so when hospitals reach the seventy-five percent threshold. The bill also requires CMS to provide Congress information on what is happening to patients who are denied access to a rehabilitation facility because of this rule.

http://bunning.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=1502&Month=2&Year=2007