CMS NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2020

Contact: CMS Media Relations
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CMS Reduces Psychiatric Hospital Burden with New Survey ProcessStreamlined process will improve quality of care for patients

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a streamlined survey and certification process for psychiatric hospitals, delivering on the Agency’s “Patients Over Paperwork” initiative. The full benefits of this initiative can be explored here: https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/Partnerships/PatientsOverPaperwork. This new process will ensure safety and quality through more holistic and efficient hospital inspections that protect patients, while reducing burden for providers.

Currently, psychiatric hospitals surveyed by State Survey Agencies are subject to two separate onsite compliance surveys, one by the State Survey Agency (SSA) for compliance with the hospital requirements and one by an outside contractor selected by the SSA for compliance with two additional psychiatric hospital standards.

Beginning in March 2020, CMS will implement a streamlined process in which psychiatric hospitals will receive one comprehensive hospital survey performed by the SSA to review compliance with both hospital and psychiatric hospital participation requirements, allowing inspectors to take a broader view of a psychiatric hospital’s operations and better identify systemic quality issues.

“The policy of multiple inspections for psychiatric hospitals is emblematic of the absurd status quo in healthcare. For too long, fragmented and misaligned processes have increased burden and administrative costs,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Under President Trump’s leadership, CMS is upending the status quo and forging ahead with practical, commonsense changes to streamline our processes to reduce burden and improve oversight and patient safety, and reducing unnecessary administrative costs.”

To participate in Medicare, a psychiatric hospital is required to meet both general hospital Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and separate CoPs for psychiatric hospitals. CoPs are federal requirements that promote the health, safety and well-being of the patients being treated in these facilities. CMS is not making any changes to these safety and quality requirements.

Moving to a single survey process will benefit patients by ensuring psychiatric hospital services are evaluated in the context of the overall hospital survey program, making it easier for surveyors and the provider to identify and correct systemic quality issues that impact patient care. It also benefits providers by reducing the regulatory burden currently imposed on psychiatric hospitals because a single survey team conducting the survey will conduct, and only one report would be issued documenting any survey findings, instead of two.

CMS is notifying hospitals, SSAs and psychiatric hospital stakeholders of this upcoming change through a memorandum released today. This change does not affect accreditation organizations’ current methodologies for approving hospitals or psychiatric hospitals, or CMS’s criteria for approving accreditation organizations to survey such facilities. To ensure states are appropriately prepared to begin conducting these surveys in March 2020, CMS is developing an online training that will be released soon.

For more information about the change in the psychiatric hospital survey process and to see the memorandum, visit: https://www.cms.gov/httpswwwcmsgovmedicareprovider-enrollment-and-certificationsurveycertificationgeninfoadministrative/informational-notice-forthcoming-integration-psychiatric-hospital-program-hospital-program-and-state