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How to Survive the CMS Hospice Special Focus Program in 2024
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Based on the latest CMS communications and the Final Rules, home health and hospice organizations can expect even greater oversight by CMS and its many contractors, and penalties for lack of compliance and poor performance in 2024. Fines, fast track letters and revocations will be more common and come more quickly in 2024.
Four key changes to the CMS survey process that home health and hospice organizations must adjust to include:
1. There will be no more prior notification of survey.
2. There will be no more block out days.
3. CMS will take over validation surveys by sending in a CMS contracted agent with the Accrediting Organization simultaneously to co-conduct the survey.
4. State complaint surveys may turn into full validation surveys.
Reportedly CMS has accelerated its surveys to occur months before the previously communicated “survey window” and in 2024 is focused on ensuring that they quickly resolve the backlog of agencies that have not had a survey in the past 36 months.
So, what can you do?
To address these major changes in the survey process, the only way an organization can survive 2024 is to ensure that you are focused on improving quality, staying compliant and being constantly survey ready.
- Maintain continuous compliance
- Educate and develop your staff
- Develop robust documentation
- Make patient and family education central to everything you do
- Identify the patient's goals for care
Click here to download a reference guide that lays out the changes in CMS survey processes, CMS emphasis on home health quality, the Hospice Special Focus Program, and operational and quality measures required to thrive in 2024.
This guide provides key updates and lays out strategies your organization can implement to do to be successful with:
- New CMS survey Process
- Impact of the OIG report on Home Health Falls
- CMS Hospice Special Focus Program
To learn more about how QAPIplus can help your organization achieve perpetual survey readiness, request a demo today.
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