The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services intends to pay closer attention to the work performed by accrediting organizations for different types of health care providers.
With all providers and suppliers participating in Medicare subject to some kind of accreditation and inspection process, CMS intends to monitor more closely the work of those accreditors and inspectors after a 2018 Wall Street Journal investigation discovered facilities with continuing problems that continued to serve patients and keep their accreditation.
With this in mind, CMS will redesign how accrediting organizations do their work, publicly post performance data on those accrediting organizations, and submit to Congress an annual report on its findings.
In a news release, CMS explained that
Today, the public relies on accreditation status as a way to gauge providers’ and suppliers’ quality of care. By posting more detail—accredited hospitals’ complaint surveys, out-of-compliance information, and performance data for AOs themselves—CMS will offer the public more nuanced information than accreditation status alone provides.
To learn more about why CMS is making these changes and what form these changes will take, go here to see a CMS news release on the subject and here to see a Fierce Healthcare article.