The federal government is wary of possible conflicts of interest occurring in healthcare accreditation organizations, and it wants input from providers about the issue.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a request for information on the matter on Wednesday. The agency is seeking comment on financial relationships between accreditors and healthcare facilities and whether there are conflicts of interest.
They said that some accreditors charge fees for consulting work even while carrying out accrediting duties. Officials worry this could be perceived as pay to play.
“We are concerned that the practice of offering both accrediting and consulting services — and the financial relationships involved in this work — may undermine the integrity of accrediting organizations and erode the public’s trust,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. “Our data shows that state-level audits of healthcare facilities are uncovering serious issues that AOs have missed, leading to high ‘disparity rates’ between the two reviews.”
CMS approves such accrediting organizations, allowing it to assess whether facilities are in compliance with Medicare requirements and eligible for payment from the federal program. State agencies then conduct follow-up reviews. CMS has found that “a significant number” of those audits have revealed issues that accreditors missed. That’s led to federal officials undertaking a “comprehensive analysis” of oversight of these organizations.
CMS said information gathered from the request will help develop future rulemaking and guidance, and determine whether revisions need to be made to accreditation organizations’ application and renewal process.
The full request for information can be found here, along with an accompanying fact sheet.
