CMS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2020
Contact: CMS Media
Relations
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CMS Reduces Psychiatric Hospital Burden with New Survey Process
Streamlined process will improve quality of care for patients
Today, the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a streamlined survey and
certification process for psychiatric hospitals, delivering on the Agency’s
“Patients Over Paperwork” initiative. The full benefits of this initiative
can be explored here: https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/Partnerships/PatientsOverPaperwork.
This new process will ensure safety and quality through more holistic and
efficient hospital inspections that protect patients, while reducing burden
for providers.
Currently, psychiatric
hospitals surveyed by State Survey Agencies are subject to two separate
onsite compliance surveys, one by the State Survey Agency (SSA) for
compliance with the hospital requirements and one by an outside contractor
selected by the SSA for compliance with two additional psychiatric hospital
standards.
Beginning in March 2020,
CMS will implement a streamlined process in which psychiatric hospitals will
receive one comprehensive hospital survey performed by the SSA to review
compliance with both hospital and psychiatric hospital participation
requirements, allowing inspectors to take a broader view of a psychiatric
hospital’s operations and better identify systemic quality issues.
“The policy of multiple
inspections for psychiatric hospitals is emblematic of the absurd status quo
in healthcare. For too long, fragmented and misaligned processes have
increased burden and administrative costs,” said CMS Administrator Seema
Verma. “Under President Trump’s leadership, CMS is upending the status quo
and forging ahead with practical, commonsense changes to streamline our
processes to reduce burden and improve oversight and patient safety, and
reducing unnecessary administrative costs.”
To participate in
Medicare, a psychiatric hospital is required to meet both general hospital Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and
separate CoPs for psychiatric hospitals. CoPs are
federal requirements that promote the health, safety and well-being of the
patients being treated in these facilities. CMS is not making any changes to
these safety and quality requirements.
Moving to a single survey
process will benefit patients by ensuring psychiatric hospital services are
evaluated in the context of the overall hospital survey program, making it
easier for surveyors and the provider to identify and correct systemic
quality issues that impact patient care. It also benefits providers by
reducing the regulatory burden currently imposed on psychiatric hospitals
because a single survey team conducting the survey will conduct, and only one
report would be issued documenting any survey findings, instead of two.
CMS is notifying
hospitals, SSAs and psychiatric hospital stakeholders of this upcoming change
through a memorandum released today. This change does not affect
accreditation organizations’ current methodologies for approving hospitals or
psychiatric hospitals, or CMS’s criteria for approving accreditation
organizations to survey such facilities. To ensure states are appropriately
prepared to begin conducting these surveys in March 2020, CMS is developing
an online training that will be released soon.
For more information about
the change in the psychiatric hospital survey process and to see the
memorandum, visit: https://www.cms.gov/httpswwwcmsgovmedicareprovider-enrollment-and-certificationsurveycertificationgeninfoadministrative/informational-notice-forthcoming-integration-psychiatric-hospital-program-hospital-program-and-state
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Monday, January 13, 2020
CMS Reduces Psychiatric Hospital Burden with New Survey Process
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