Government and public statistics
42 CFR 482.51 Condition of participation: Surgical services
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the Code of Federal Regulations), n.d.
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- The federal Medicare rule for surgical services in hospitals, including when the operative report must be written or dictated and who signs it.
- How much weight it carries
- Official regulation text as reproduced by the Cornell Legal Information Institute. It applies to Medicare-participating hospitals, so other settings may follow different rules.
Facts taken from this source
- Medicare's hospital surgical services rules require an operative report describing the techniques, findings and tissues removed or altered, written or dictated immediately after surgery and signed by the surgeon.
“An operative report describing techniques, findings, and tissues removed or altered must be written or dictated immediately following surgery and signed by the surgeon.” (Paragraph (b)(6))