CMS has released a significant update to the guidance to surveyors for home health agencies.
Released Friday, March 15, the revised State Operations Manual Appendix B adds more 25 pages to the existing 92-page text.
CMS offered this general summary of the changes:
- Retires CMS memos that are no longer applicable or have been incorporated into Appendix B.
- Adds the survey protocol for HHAs to Part I of Appendix B. Appendix B replaces older CMS memos that we are retiring and describes the requirements and procedures for conducting an HHA survey.
- Revises the Level 1 standards that surveyors must assess during a standard survey. Added three Emergency Preparedness tags to Level 1 standards. A partial extended survey is conducted when noncompliance is identified in any Level 1 Standard.
- CMS no longer identifies specific Level 2 standards; instead, when noncompliance with a Level 1 standard is identified, all remaining standards within the relevant CoP are evaluated and a determination must be made as to the compliance with the condition.
- Revises tags to reflect updated regulatory language based on final rules and adds interpretive guidance where appropriate.
- Consolidates tags to remove redundancy.
- Adds survey procedures to multiple tags to assist surveyors in assessing compliance with the regulatory requirements.
- Adds a cross-reference to Appendix Z for the HHA emergency preparedness tags.
- Makes multiple technical and formatting revisions to fix regulatory citations, acronyms and tag titles.
We’ll have analysis and insight in upcoming issues of Home Health Line.