U.S. Medicare policy change in catheter guidelines Improves patient care in home and hospice setting.

This spring marks the one-year anniversary of an historic change in Medicare policy. This change is positively impacting quality of care for more than a million people with chronic diseases and conditions that are yet still little known. In April 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the Department of Health and Human Services eliminated the mandatory reuse of intermittent catheters for outpatients who receive such prescriptions from doctors. In short, no more cleaning and reusing catheters at home for people who self-catheterize.