Keeping an eye on Congress in 2016; Joint Commission tracks legislation in the works

Joint Commission tracks legislation in the works

Continuing Education Objectives

After reading this article, you will be able to:

Discuss key points of the proposed 2016 CMS budget

Identify impending rules

Discuss several congressional areas of concern related to healthcare

As CMS works to get its legislative agenda back on track, there are several key issues that The Joint Commission is tracking, including the adoption of a newer edition of the Life Safety Code® (LSC) and the approval of additional funding for antimicrobial stewardship and emergency preparedness.

In early October, The Joint Commission held its CMS Hospital Update meeting in New York to explain the key legislative issues of interest to hospitals. Although a government shutdown was narrowly avoided in September, the CMS budget was bumped down the list of congressional priorities as Congress has a slew of regular bills that need to pass by the end of the year. (At presstime, Congress was in process of approving the government budget.)

"Once the CMS budget is approved, CMS is projecting that they'll perform 25,000 initial and re-certification surveys and approximately 52,000 complaint surveys in 2016," said Michelle McDonald, MPH, RN, executive director, government regulations and advisory services for Joint Commission Resources, who spoke at the meeting.

CMS has forecast $437.2 million for survey and certification in 2016, an increase of $39.9 million from 2015. The costs will support direct survey costs, additional survey-related costs, and surveyor training, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committee.

This is an excerpt from an article in the monthly training resource Briefings on Accreditation and Quality. To read more, click here to login or subscribe.