On 15 April of last year, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum instructing the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, to draft a new rule that would bar hospitals that participate in Medicare and/or Medicaid from denying "visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability" to previously designated visitors and that wold "guarantee that all patients' advance directives, such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies, are respected, and that patients' representatives otherwise have the right to make informed decisions regarding patients' care."
With this memo President Obama began the process that would enable gay and lesbian people to have the same basic rights and responsibilities regarding their partners as those enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.
The final version of that rule (which appeared int he Federal Register 19 November 2010 and which you can read here), went in to effect today. Since virtually all hospitals participate in Medicare and/or Medicaid, the rule basically applies nationwide.
Here's the part that matters (from the last page of the cited Federal Register above):
§ 482.13 Condition of participation:
(h) Standard: Patient visitation rights. A hospital must have written policies and procedures regarding the visitation rights of patients, including those setting forth any clinically necessary or reasonable restriction or limitation that the hospital may need to place on such rights and the reasons for the clinical restriction or limitation. A hospital must meet the following requirements:
(1) Inform each patient (or support person, where appropriate) of his or her visitation rights, including any clinical restriction or limitation on such rights, when he or she is informed of his or her other rights under this section.
(2) Inform each patient (or support person, where appropriate) of the right, subject to his or her consent, to receive the visitors whom he or she designates, including, but not limited to, a spouse, a domestic partner (including a samesex domestic partner), another family member, or a friend, and his or her right to withdraw or deny such consent at any time.
(3) Not restrict, limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
(4) Ensure that all visitors enjoy full and equal visitation privileges consistent with patient preferences. Patient’s rights.
One more step closer to the goal.