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 will delay its initial surveys. JCAHO’s Home Care Accreditation Program Executive Director Maryanne Popovich, RN, MPH, says the organization also will wait at least six months before resuming surveys.
Clinton’s moratorium was recently described by insiders at the National Association for Home Care (NAHC) 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 in 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 history of compliance.
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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