U.S. Advises Hospitals to Limit ‘Non-Essential’ Elective Care

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will issue guidance to hospitals urging them to limit “non-essential” elective medical procedures, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Wednesday.

Several hospital associations wrote the U.S. surgeon general, Jerome Adams, on Sunday to advise against such a government directive.

But the CMS administrator, Seema Verma, said “we believe that these recommendations will help surgeons, patients and hospitals prioritize what is essential, while making the ultimate decision in the hands of state and local health officials and those clinicians who have direct responsibility to their patient.”

She said her agency had the support of physician groups and appealed to “the entire health care community to join us in this effort.”

The hospital associations said in their letter that the decision should be left to medical professionals.

“A blanket directive to cancel elective and non-urgent procedures usurps the proper role of the physicians caring for patients and their families, collaborating closely with the hospital, to determine what is in the patient’s best interests,” they wrote.

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