How Home Health Providers Can Prepare For The Survey Processes

By Joyce Famakinwa 

It’s more important than ever for home health organizations to be ready for the survey process.

In order to be prepared, providers will need to be armed with strategies that will help them come out on top.

“Even the most prepared operations are blindsided by unexpected interpretations and requirements,” Lynn Smith, senior manager on the compliance and regulatory team at SimiTree, said during a recent webinar.

 Broadly, there are a number of different kinds of surveys that are relevant to home health providers, including state surveys, the deemed status accreditation survey and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) validation survey.

“The state survey is where your State Department of Health would come and do your survey,” Smith said. “Also, there are deemed status accreditation surveys. This is when you’re using an accrediting body to do your survey. The CMS validation survey is when a CMS team, or contractor, conducts an independent survey within 60 days of the state survey to compare the results. Sometimes you may see a CMS validation survey that comes after an accrediting body does your survey.”

Prior to the survey process, it is important to make sure that the entire staff has a strong understanding of the current home health conditions of participation (CoPs).

Along these lines, providers should incorporate this education into an orientation program for new staff members. There should also be rolling updates for the current staff.

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