On July 11, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed Senate Invoice 818 (“SB 818”) into legislation, which amends the Well being Care Services Act to increase the variety of procedures that could be carried out in an ambulatory surgical procedure middle (“ASC”) and to determine shorter timeframes for Division of Well being responses to requests for exceptions and waivers.
The brand new legislation expands the checklist of procedures which are allowed to be carried out in Pennsylvania ASCs by aligning that checklist with these procedures contained within the 2022 Ambulatory Surgical Middle Lined Procedures Record (“ASC-CPL”) printed by the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers (“CMS”). The ASC-CPL specifies surgical procedures that CMS has decided may be appropriately and safely carried out on an ambulatory foundation in an ASC, vital entry hospital, or hospital outpatient division. Pennsylvania ASCs now not have to petition the Division of Well being for an exception or waiver to carry out a process already listed within the ASC-CPL until there may be one other battle with state laws.
For these procedures that also require an exception or waiver, the brand new legislation units shorter timeframes for a course of that in some situations took months or multiple yr. The Division of Well being should reply to an exception or waiver request inside 60 days of receipt and supply a written response to the requestor. Any denial should embody particular statutory or regulatory grounds for the choice. If additional data is required to make a dedication, the Division should additionally reply inside 60 days of receiving such extra data.
SB 818 additionally permits cardiac catheterizations to be carried out in ASCs. Beforehand, Pennsylvania legislation solely allowed these procedures to be carried out in acute care hospitals.
The brand new legislation will take impact on September ninth.
Please contact Jonathan Schall at jschall@foxrothschild.com with any questions you might have about how this new Pennsylvania legislation could impression your ambulatory surgical procedure middle.
