CONGRESSWOMAN JOHNSON SUPPORTS EQUAL VISITATION RIGHTS FOR ALL HOSPITAL PATIENTS

New requirements empower patients to designate their own visitors, including a same-sex domestic partner

Washington, DC – (Thursday, November 18, 2010) –On yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules for Medicare-and-Medicaid-participating hospitals that protect patients’ right to choose their own visitors during a hospital stay, including a visitor who is a same-sex domestic partner.

The new rules follow from an April 15, 2010 Presidential Memorandum, in which President Obama tasked The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with developing standards for Medicare-and-Medicaid-participating hospitals (including critical access hospitals) that would require them to respect the right of all patients to choose who may visit them when they are an inpatient of a hospital.  The President’s memorandum instructed HHS to develop rules that would prohibit hospitals from denying visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.  It also directed that the rules take into account the need for a hospital to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances.
“I have always believed that when a person is ill, it is that person’s right to decide who should or should not be allowed to visit them while they are in the hospital,” said Congresswoman Johnson.

The rules require hospitals to have written policies and procedures detailing patients’ visitation rights, as well as the circumstances under which the hospitals may restrict patient access to visitors based on reasonable clinical needs.
A key provision of the rules specifies that all visitors chosen by the patient (or his or her representative) must be able to enjoy “full and equal” visitation privileges consistent with the wishes of the patient (or his or her representative).

The rules update the Conditions of Participation (CoPs), which are the health and safety standards all Medicare-and-Medicaid-participating hospitals and critical access hospitals must meet, and are applicable to all patients of those hospitals, regardless of payer source.
Among other things, the rules impose new requirements on hospitals to explain to all patients their right to choose who may visit them during their inpatient stay, regardless of whether the visitor is a family member, a spouse, a domestic partner (including a same-sex domestic partner), or other type of visitor, as well as their right to withdraw such consent to visitation at any time.
CMS finalized the rules based on thousands of comments from patient advocates, the hospital community, and other stakeholders.  The rules will be effective 60 days after publication.  More information about the rules is available on CMS’ website at http://www.cms.gov/CFCsAndCoPs/06_Hospitals.asp and http://www.cms.gov/CFCsAndCoPs/03_CAHs.asp.



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U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and a senior member of the Science Committee. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas, which, includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, & South Oak Cliff; all of Balch Springs, DeSoto, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Ferris, Glenn Heights and Ovilla.