JCAHO will delay certification surveys
December 1, 1997 less than 1 minute read
JCAHO will delay certification surveys
In case you’ve been wondering, President Clinton’s declaration of a six-month moratorium on the certification of home health agencies also means the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations will delay its initial surveys. Maryanne Popovich, RN, MPH, executive director of JCAHO’s Home Care Accreditation Program, says the organization also will wait at least six months before resuming surveys.
Clinton’s moratorium recently was described by insiders at the National Association for Home Care as a purely political move to make the president appear decisive in the face of the ongoing campaign financing probe. Nevertheless, the moratorium has been touted by the media as a way to slow the rapid growth of the home care industry and weed out undesirable providers in the process.
During the moratorium, the Health Care Financing Administration will write new anti-fraud regulations. Once those regulations go into effect, existing home health agencies must recertify every three years. However, HCFA has not said what weight it will give a home care agency’s experience in writing the new regulations. And no one is certain if the moratorium will end in six months or extend beyond the informal timetable set by the president.
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