Proposed new Medicare regulation on antibiotics that rations care slammed by AAPS

Politically unaccountable groups, having their own agendas, should not be dictating the practice of medicine in the form of guidelines to be required by Medicare, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) in comments it submitted on Saturday (August 13) to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its proposed new regulation.

The proposed regulation would limit the use of antibiotics by physicians and hospitals to prevent disease, deadly and otherwise. It was open for public comment through August 5.

This proposed new rule is CMS-3295-P, innocently entitled "Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Changes to Promote Innovation, Flexibility, and Improvement in Patient Care." What this new rule would really do is ration and withhold the use of antibiotics for the tens of millions of patients who are admitted to hospitals, it says.