CMS has taken an important step toward normalizing its operations as the COVID crisis matures:
The agency is restarting routine inspections of healthcare providers and suppliers certified to receive reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid.
As part of a Monday announcement, the agency released guidance for state agencies and a toolkit for nursing homes. In the materials, CMS calls for the resumption of onsite revisit surveys, non-immediate jeopardy complaint surveys and annual recertification surveys “as soon as resources are available.”
CMS Administrator Seema Verma suggests her team will maintain a heightened state of awareness over infection control as these surveys and other non-crisis activities ramp back up.
“[T]he health and safety of America’s patients will always be our top priority,” Verma adds in the announcement.
For more on the development, including links to a memo sent to state agencies and the toolkit for nursing homes, click here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.