New CMS Rules Make Tele-ICU Credentialing Process Easier

Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) took a huge step in support of telemedicine by implementing a new credentialing and privileging process for telemedicine providers, such as Advanced ICU Care.

Under the new rule, hospitals will no longer have to credential and grant privileges to each clinician who provides telemedicine services to its patients from an off-site location. Instead, hospitals can rely on the credentialing and privileging decisions of the clinician's home hospital or facility. The rule is intended to reduce barriers for smaller hospitals to participate in telemedicine programs that larger hospitals offer.

Also, Medicare will now privilege telemedicine work, such as tele-ICU services, whether the services are delivered directly by a hospital or, in the case of Advanced ICU Care, by a private company.

"These new rules show CMS recognizes the important impact telemedicine has upon the lives of patients around the country," said Mary Jo Gorman, M.D., MBA, CEO of Advanced ICU Care. "We commend CMS streamline the arduous credentialing and privileging rules in Medicare to help make it easier for caregivers to bring life-saving technologies to more patients."

The CMS final rule on telemedicine was announced May 2, 2011 and will go into effect July 2, 2011. A full copy of the rule is available here.