CMS releases guidance on privileging

In a much-anticipated, four-page memorandum, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has spelled out what hospitals must do to ensure their medical staff privileging system meets federal requirements.

A hospital's medical staff must individually evaluate each practitioner and determine that he or she has the qualifications and demonstrated competencies to perform all of the specific privileges granted, CMS said in a November 12 letter to its state survey agency directors.

"The hospital's governing body must ensure that all practitioners who provide a medical level of care and/or conduct surgical procedures in the hospital are individually evaluated by its medical staff and that those practitioners possess current qualifications and demonstrated competencies for the privileges granted," CMS said in a summary of its privileging position.