CMS to reconsider informed consent guidelines

Claiming new requirements for informed consent are not workable, particularly in teaching hospitals, the American College of Surgeons (ASC) and the American Association of Medical Colleges have asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to revise its 2004 requirements that expand the scope of informed consent that physicians must obtain from surgery patients. 

The CMS currently requires that patients are informed if any practitioner besides the primary surgeon will participate in the surgery. The Interpretive Guidelines for the Medicare Conditions of Participation adopted by CMS in May 2004 also state that the patient must be told the specific parts of the procedure that such physicians will perform.

Jean Harris, associate director of the division of advocacy and health policy for the ASC, says that the ASC and AAMC received assurances that CMS would "provide relief" on this issue. And the CMS spokesperson told "Medical Staff Leader Connection" that the agency has agreed to consider new language on informed consent.