Vernaglia Comments on CMS Proposal to Streamline Regulations

Partner Larry Vernaglia was quoted in a Health System Specialist article, “CMS Proposes Streamlining Regulations to Save Hospitals More Than $1 Billion Annually,” about a variety of proposed rule modifications intended to ease the regulatory burden on hospitals and health care systems.

Vernaglia said the proposals would better allow health care systems to build compliance programs to scale, as opposed to having them placed at virtually every site where they deliver care. “That is a good thing,” he said. “It’s dumb to have to build redundancies and duplicative oversight.”

The proposed rules also would permit flexibility if systems want to take a more cautious path, he added. “If the mother ship has hired the best experts (to implement policies), I’m okay with that,” he said, “but if a local administrator or director of nursing wants to do something different, it is okay.”