The HHS Office of Inspector
General (OIG) issued a report on Home Health Agencies Survey’s. They did this study to determine if State
agencies and accreditation organizations conducted timely recertification surveys
of HHAs. They also identified the extent
to which HHAs received deficiency citations, corrected deficiencies, or had
complaints lodged against them.
They found that State
agencies and accreditation organizations conducted recertification surveys for
nearly all HHAs within the required 36-month timeframe and cited 12 percent of
HHAs with “condition”-level deficiencies, the most serious type of
deficiency. Ninety-three percent of
these HHAs corrected their condition-level deficiencies within the required
90-day timeframe; the remaining 7 percent correct the deficiencies late or left
Medicare. Fifteen percent of the HHAs
had complaints lodged against them; surveyor’s conducted complaint
investigation surveys for nearly all of these HHAs and cited 7 percent of them
with condition-level deficiencies. With
few exceptions, HHAs corrected all condition-level deficiencies cited during
the complaint survey.
They recommend that CMS
analyze survey data to determine whether it should routinely conduct look-behind
surveys for oversight of State agencies, which conduct most HHA recertification
surveys. CMS has concurred with their
recommendations.
To view the OIG Report go
to:
