A newly proposed rule by CMS would put into effect new discharge planning requirements that the agency says will give patients and their families access to in to information that will “help them to make informed decisions about their post-acute care, while addressing their goals of care and treatment preferences, which may ultimately reduce their chances of being re-hospitalized.”

"This final rule empowers patients to be active participants in the discharge planning process and complements efforts around interoperability that focus on the seamless exchange of patient information between health care settings by revising the discharge planning requirements that Hospitals (including Short-Term Acute-Care Hospitals, Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs), Rehabilitation Hospitals, Psychiatric Hospitals, Children’s Hospitals, and Cancer Hospitals), Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and Home Health Agencies (HHAs) must meet in order to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs," says the document. .

The unpublished document can be downloaded at https://federalregister.gov/d/2019-20732. CMS says it plans to officially publish it the Federal Register on 09/30/2019. The rule will take effect 60 days after being published in the Federal Register.

We will have more on this story as it develops.