Physician supervision of CRNAs has been an ongoing topic of debate within the Anesthesia community for decades. Under current law, CRNAs are required to be supervised by a physician unless the individual State “opts out” of the requirement. To date, 17 States (Kentucky the most recent) have opted out of the requirement.
In a post on The Anesthesia Insider, blogger Neda Mirafzali, Esq (Anesthesiologists Targeted in CMS’ Review of Existing Rules) states that Health and Human Services (HHS) has been directed to review all existing rules related to health care and make them more effective, efficient, flexible and streamlined. As a part of the review, CMS is looking at the issue of CRNA supervision as a condition of participation in the care of Medicare and Medicaid patients with the possibility that the supervision requirement be removed on a Federal level.
The blog post includes a brief but excellent review of who may supervise a CRNA and what constitutes supervision. Changing the regulations would have no effect on the states that have already opted out of the requirement for supervision. The remaining 33 States would, in essence, be automatically opted out by virtue of the rule change
Click here to read the original blog post and return to procrna.com to make a comment.