Home Health & Hospice Week

Surveyor education is one focus.

If you want to see Medicare tighten up requirements for accrediting organizations and their clients, a new rule will be right up your alley.

“Each year, Accrediting Organizations (AOs) with a CMS-approved program survey over 9,000 accredited health care providers and suppliers participating in the Medicare/ Medicaid program,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a fact sheet about the rule which was published in the Feb. 15 Federal Register. AOs for home health and hospice are The Joint Commission, ACHC, and CHAP.

“In recent years, CMS has identified several concerns related to AO performance,” the agency says in the fact sheet. That includes inconsistent survey results, providers retaining accreditation when they are terminated from the program, and providing “fee-based consulting services to the providers and suppliers they accredit, potentially affecting the integrity of the onsite survey process and decreasing public trust by creating conflicts of interest.”

The rule proposes a number of ways to head off conflicts of interest, such as limiting consulting, increasing reporting, and requiring more surveyor education. CMS has already implemented some of the measures in the home health and hospice survey process, it notes in the 69-page rule.

“Overall, the proposals CMS is making would strengthen oversight of the AOs and mitigate risks inherent in situations where an entity is being paid for its services by those it investigates,” the National Association for Home Care & Hospice says in its member newsletter.

More details and instructions for commenting by April 15 are at www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-02-15/ pdf/2024-02137.pdf.