The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Survey and Certification Letter as a reminder of current regulations (42 C.F.R. 483.10(j)) delineating the rights of long term care (“LTC”) residents to receive family and non-family visitors. The current guidelines grant broad discretion to the residents with respect to visitation. Facilities must provide 24-hour visitation rights to all individuals with the resident’s consent. Further, the visitation privileges of these individuals are subject to the resident’s expressed preference. If no specific preference is given, the visitor is entitled to full and equal visitation privileges.
Facilities are required to notify the residents of their rights to have 24-hour visitation. Surveyors may interview residents and family members and ask if they understand resident visitation rights. If there is any indication that restrictions have been imposed, or that residents are unaware of their visitation rights, the surveyors may review the circumstances surrounding such restrictions/limitations, interview the facility and evaluate visitation policies.
Limitations
A facility may impose “reasonable restrictions” on certain visitors only to protect the security of all the facility’s residents. For example, persons behaving disruptively may be denied access. No other limitations may be imposed.
Should you have any questions, please contact:
- Todd Selby at 317.977.1440 or tselby@wp.hallrender.com;
- Brian Jent at 317.977.1402 or bjent@wp.hallrender.com;
- David Bufford at 502.568.9368 or dbufford@wp.hallrender.com; or
- Your regular Hall Render attorney.
