HHS Finishes Hospital Visitation Rules

[WillParkinson]

HHS Finishes Hospital Visitation Rules

In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Health and Human Services Department officials discussed the final rules submitted today regarding hospital visitation policies for hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.

Hospitals participating in either program are required under the rules to allow a patient "to receive the visitors whom he or she designates -- regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." A Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) official told reporters, "I think it would be the rare hospital that did not participate in the Medicare program."

If a hospital fails to meet its obligations under the new rules, an HHS official said, "Hospitals must provide a plan of correction -- with a very tight timeframe. If they fail to do so, they are at some risk to have their Medicare" eligibility cut.

Among the rules are:

(1) Inform each patient (or support person, where appropriate) of his or her visitation rights, including any clinical restriction or limitation on such rights, when he or she is informed of his or her other rights under this section.

(2) Inform each patient (or support person, where appropriate) of the right, subject to his or her consent, to receive the visitors whom he or she designates, including, but not limited to, a spouse, a domestic partner (including a same-sex domestic partner), another family member, or a friend, and his or her right to withdraw or deny such consent at any time.

(3) Not restrict, limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

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[RetiredTrotskyite]

1. I Can't Wait...

until some fundie hospital receiving Federal funds tries to take this to court claiming that even though they have federal funds coming in, it is their religious right to discriminate. You know it is going to happen at some point. Idjit fundie homohaters!