A summary of the CMS report to congress

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality, Safety & Oversight Group (QSOG) published a memo on September 5 regarding the FY 2022 Report to Congress (RTC): Review of Medicare’s Program Oversight of Accrediting Organizations (AOs) and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) Validation Program.

Key points:

• CMS must release a report to Congress annually regarding “its oversight of national AOs and their CMS-approved accreditation programs,” says section 1875(b) of the Social Security Act (the Act).
• Section 353(e)(3) of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) says CMS must also release a report “of the CLIA validation program results” annually.
• The COVID-19 pandemic affected this RTC timeline. The next RTC will oversee 2022-2024 data.

AOs approved by CMS:

• Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC)
• Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc. (ACHC)
• American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF)
• Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP)
• Center for Improvement in healthcare (CIHQ)
• DNV – Healthcare (DNV)
• The Compliance Team (TCT)
• The Joint Commission (TJC)
• National Dialysis Accreditation Commission (NDAC)

AOs approved by CLIA:

• AABB
• American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA)
• Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc. (ACHC)
• American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
• COLA
• College of American Pathologists (CAP)
• The Joint Commission (TJC)