Here are three regulatory and benchmarking updates to know from The Joint Commission and Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care released in the past month:
1. The Joint Commission's new requirements for Advanced Certification for Total Hip and Knee Replacement are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2019 for all new customers applying for the certification. The Joint Commission revised the program's eligibility requirements to mandate advanced total hip and knee replacement certified programs to join the American Joint Replacement Registry, using data collected from the registry to improve processes.
2. The Joint Commission will not require the performance improvement standard for deemed-status ASCs, effective July 1, 2019. The Joint Commission decided to remove the standard after regulatory language for appropriateness and medical necessity data gathering changed.
3. AAAHC released a new report titled the "AAAHC Quality Roadmap 2018" based on data from over 900 accreditation surveys, identifying areas of high and low compliance for ASCs, Medicare deemed status ASCs, office-based surgery facilities and primary care settings.