Effective March 23, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) is lifting the most recent 30-day limitation for hospital surveys and allowing State Survey Agencies (“SSAs”) to resume survey activity in accordance with CMS’s Non-Long Term Care Guidance. CMS suspended survey activity for certain non-emergency state survey inspections in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. In August 2020, CMS allowed SSAs to resume normal survey activities once the state entered Phase 3 of reopening, or earlier, at the SSA’s discretion. Then, on January 20, 2021, CMS issued guidance again suspending certain hospital survey activities for 30 days due to the winter surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. On February 18, 2021, CMS extended the most recent survey limitations for an additional 30 days. During the most recent COVID-19 survey moratorium, CMS: (i) suspended hospital surveys and enforcement actions for all complaint surveys, other than Immediate Jeopardy complaints; and (ii) permitted hospitals to delay the submission of any Plan of Correction (“POC”) until the survey suspension period ended.
On March 26, 2021, CMS announced the resumption of all hospital survey activities effective March 23, 2021. According to the announcement, complaints submitted during the most recent suspension period (January 1, 2021 through March 22, 2021) must be investigated within 45 days (i.e., no later than May 7, 2021). In addition, all open surveys with cited deficiency tags must have an acceptable POC and supporting evidence in order for the tags to be corrected. Hospitals have until April 6, 2021 to submit any POC for surveys that ended between January 20, 2021 and March 23, 2021.
Recommendations
Hospitals and health systems with recent complaints and/or quality of care issues should begin preparing for possible surveys in the upcoming weeks. Also, hospitals and health systems with open surveys that are having difficulty developing or implementing POCs due to an ongoing COVID-19 surge should contact their SSA and/or CMS location to request an extension.
If you have questions related to hospital survey and certification matters, please contact:
- Laetitia Cheltenham at (919) 447-4968 or lcheltenham@hallrender.com;
- Katherine Kuchan at (414) 721-0479 or kkuchan@hallrender.com;
- Jennifer Skeels at (317) 977-1497 or jskeels@hallrender.com; or
- Your primary Hall Render contact.
Hall Render blog posts and articles are intended for informational purposes only. For ethical reasons, Hall Render attorneys cannot—outside of an attorney-client relationship—answer specific questions that would be legal advice.
