Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
LTC Surveyors Seeking Systemic Sorts Of Problems
Several noncompliance findings may make surveyors suspicious.
Heads up, nursing homes: State surveyors could cite separate deficiencies for past noncompliance during complaince investigations.
State surveyors should use a variety of methods to identify and confirm a nursing home's past noncompliance--similar to verifying a facility's correction of current noncompliance during a revisit. That was the opinion the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put forth in an Oct. 20 letter to state survey agency directors.
But surveyors should make current compliance determinations with regulations before considering past noncompliance citations, the agency says.
Effective for surveys with an exit date on or after Nov. 1, surveyors who identify noncompliance with additional requirements may consider them indications of systemic problems in care delivery within the nursing home, the letter notes.
Find it online: To read the letter, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/survey-cert/sc0601.pdf.
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