CMS to mull 2012 Life Safety Code

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) says it will use an upcoming rulemaking process to consider whether the agency should make compliance with the latest edition of the National Fire Protection Association's NFPA 101: Life Safety Code part of conditions of participation (CoPs) for hospitals and critical access hospitals, according to a recent report in the American Society for Healthcare Engineering's ASHE Insider e-newsletter. CMS solicited comments about whether the agency should adopt the 2012 edition instead of the 2000 edition currently required for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. ASHE encouraged CMS to adopt the newest version, which will save hospital resources and present fewer conflicting codes. CMS said that many commenters recommended adopting the 2012 edition, and many also suggested that CMS should simply require the most current edition instead of adopting a specific edition. CMS said in its final regulation to revise CoPs that it would consider the issue through separate notice-and-comment rulemaking targeted for publication in the near future, ASHE reports.

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