CMS is taking action to improve its oversight of Medicare's accrediting organizations.
Here are the key details to know:
1. CMS administrator Seema Verma said the agency is increasing transparency for patients on accrediting organizations' performance in three ways:
2. Accrediting organizations' performance data will be publicly available on the CMS.gov website.
3. The validation survey for accrediting organizations will be redesigned. CMS is eliminating the second state-conducted validation survey that follows the survey done by accrediting organizations. In its place, CMS will conduct direct observation during the initial accreditation organization survey to assess compliance with CMS' conditions of participation.
4. CMS' annual "Report to Congress" will be released, including its "Review of Medicare’s Program for Oversight of Accrediting Organizations and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Validation Program Fiscal Year 2017," which is already live on CMS.gov.
"The public trusts CMS to ensure the quality and safety of patient care, and we take this responsibility very seriously," Ms. Verma said in a release. "Today's changes will bolster the processes for overseeing how effective accrediting organizations, who work on CMS' behalf, are in evaluating healthcare facilities."
More articles on accreditation:
3 things to know about The Joint Commission's tracer methodology
5 strategies to ensure accurate patient identification from The Joint Commission
3 things to know about Pearl Darling, The Joint Commission's new director of Ambulatory Care Services