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Revisions have been made to these standards and they will be implemented July 15, 2010

The October 2009 issue of The Joint Commission Perspectives (provided online free of charge) includes a special section on the CMS -related changes made to the standards and survey process since March 2009 as part of CMS’ review of The Joint Commission’s application for renewal of its hospital deeming authority. The changes include:

• The Accreditation Survey Findings Report was modified to include both Joint Commission and Medicare requirements identified as being less than fully compliant at the time of survey (effective July 1, 2009).
• Accreditation awards are being aligned with the CMS Certification Numbers (CCNs). The Joint Commission is contacting each affected hospital to discuss how to realign their accreditation award in accordance with their CCN by the effective date of July 15, 2010.
• Modifications to The Joint Commission’s Medicare recommendation letter to inform CMS that a new or existing Medicare provider has participated in a deemed status survey and that The Joint Commission is making a recommendation regarding Medicare certification as a result.
• Specificity was added to the hospital standards as a way to demonstrate equivalency with the Medicare hospital requirements. New elements of performance (EPs) were created and others were revised. The majority of the revisions are minor editorial changes that include adding notes to standards and EPs to further clarify the intent of requirements.

While revisions have been made to these standards and they will be implemented by July 15, 2010, The Joint Commission continues to engage CMS and members of Congress regarding the issue of credentialing and privileging by proxy as it relates to telemedicine providers and users.

2010 Accreditation Requirements Chapters includes Ambulatory Health Care, Behavioral Heath Care,    Critical Access Hospitals, Home Care, Hospitals, Laboratory, Long Term Care and Office-Based Surgery.

Source: Joint Commission

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