17072 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 57 / Friday, March 23, 2012 / Notices 

comments we receive by the date and 

time specified in the DATES section of 

this preamble, and, when we proceed 

with a subsequent document, we will 

respond to the comments in the 

preamble to that document. 

Upon completion of our evaluation, 

including evaluation of comments 

received as a result of this notice, we 

will publish a final notice in the Federal 

Register announcing the result of our 

evaluation. 

Authority: Section 1865 of the Social 

Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395bb) 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program No. 93.778, Medical Assistance 

Program; No. 93.773 Medicare—Hospital 

Insurance Program; and No. 93.774, 

Medicare—Supplementary Medical 

Insurance Program). 

Dated: March 13, 2012. 

Marilyn Tavenner, 

Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services. 

[FR Doc. 2012–6856 Filed 3–22–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[CMS–2377–FN] 

Medicare and Medicaid Programs; 

Approval of the Community Health 

Accreditation Program for Continued 

CMS-Approval of its Home Health 

Agency Accreditation Program 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. 

ACTION: Final notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces our 

decision to approve the Community 

Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) 

for recognition as a national 

accreditation program for home health 

agencies (HHAs) seeking to participate 

in the Medicare or Medicaid programs. 

DATES: This final notice is effective 

March 31, 2012 through March 31, 2018. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Lillian Williams, (410) 786–8636, or 

Patricia Chmielewski, (410) 786–6899. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

Under the Medicare program, eligible 

beneficiaries may receive covered 

services in a home health agency (HHA) 

provided certain requirements are met. 

Sections 1861(m) and (o) and 1891 and 

1895 of the Social Security Act (the Act) 

establish distinct criteria for facilities 

seeking designation as an HHA. Under 

this authority, the minimum 

requirements that an HHA must meet to 

participate in Medicare are set forth in 

regulations at 42 CFR part 484, which 

determine the basis and scope of HHA 

covered services, and the conditions for 

Medicare payment for home health care. 

Regulations concerning provider 

agreements are at part 489 and those 

pertaining to activities relating to the 

survey and certification of facilities are 

at part 488. 

Generally, in order to enter into a 

provider agreement with the Medicare 

program, HHAs must first be certified by 

a State survey agency as complying with 

conditions or requirements set forth in 

part 484. Thereafter, the HHA is subject 

to regular surveys by a State survey 

agency to determine whether it 

continues to meet these requirements. 

However, there is an alternative to State 

compliance surveys. Accreditation by a 

nationally-recognized accreditation 

program can substitute for ongoing State 

review. 

Section 1865(a)(1) of the Act provides 

that, if a provider entity demonstrates 

through accreditation by an approved 

national accreditation organization that 

all applicable Medicare conditions are 

met or exceeded, we may ‘‘deem’’ those 

provider entities as having met the 

requirements. Accreditation by an 

accreditation organization is voluntary 

and is not required for Medicare 

participation. 

If an accreditation organization is 

recognized by the Secretary as having 

standards for accreditation that meet or 

exceed Medicare requirements, a 

provider entity accredited by the 

national accrediting body’s approved 

program may be deemed to meet the 

Medicare conditions. A national 

accreditation organization applying for 

CMS-approval of its accreditation 

program under part 488, subpart A must 

provide us with reasonable assurance 

that the accreditation organization 

requires the accredited provider entities 

to meet requirements that are at least as 

stringent as the Medicare conditions. 

Our regulations concerning the 

reapproval of accreditation 

organizations are set forth at § 488.4 and 

§ 488.8(d)(3). Section 488.8(d)(3) 

requires accreditation organizations to 

reapply for continued CMS-approval of 

its accreditation program every six 

years, or sooner as determined by us. 

CHAP’s term of approval as a 

recognized accreditation program for 

HHAs expires March 31, 2012. 

II. Deeming Applications Approval 

Process 

Section 1865(a)(3)(A) of the Act 

provides a statutory timetable to ensure 

that our review of deeming applications 

is conducted in a timely manner. The 

Act provides us with 210 calendar days 

after the date of receipt of an application 

to complete our survey activities and 

application review process. Within 60 

days of receiving a completed 

application, we must publish a notice in 

the Federal Register that identifies the 

national accreditation body making the 

request, describes the request, and 

provides no less than a 30-day public 

comment period. At the end of the 

210-day period, we must publish an 

approval or denial of the application. 

III. Proposed Notice 

In the September 23, 2011, Federal 

Register (76 FR 59136), we published a 

proposed notice announcing CHAP’s 

request for continued CMS approval of 

its HHA accreditation program. In the 

proposed notice, we detailed our 

evaluation criteria. Under section 

1865(a)(2) of the Act and our regulations 

at § 488.4 (Application and 

reapplication procedures for 

accreditation organizations), we 

conducted a review of CHAP’s 

application in accordance with the 

criteria specified by our regulations, 

which include, but are not limited to the 

following: 

• An onsite administrative review of 

CHAP’s: (1) Corporate policies; (2) 

financial and human resources available 

to accomplish the proposed surveys; (3) 

procedures for training, monitoring, and 

evaluation of its surveyors; (4) ability to 

investigate and respond appropriately to 

complaints against accredited facilities; 

and, (5) survey review and decisionmaking process for accreditation. 

• A comparison of CHAP’s HHA 

accreditation standards to our current 

Medicare HHA conditions for 

participation. 

• A documentation review of CHAP’s 

survey processes to: 

≈≈ Determine the composition of the 

survey team, surveyor qualifications, 

and the ability of CHAP to provide 

continuing surveyor training. 

≈≈ Compare CHAP’s processes to 

those of State survey agencies, including 

survey frequency, and the ability to 

investigate and respond appropriately to 

complaints against accredited facilities. 

≈≈ Evaluate CHAP’s procedures for 

monitoring providers or suppliers found 

to be out of compliance with CHAP 

program requirements. The monitoring 

procedures are used only when the 

CHAP identifies noncompliance. If 

noncompliance is identified through 

validation reviews, the survey agency 

monitors corrections as specified at 

§ 488.7(d). 


srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 57 / Friday, March 23, 2012 / Notices 17073 

≈≈ Assess CHAP’s ability to report 

deficiencies to the surveyed facilities 

and respond to the facility’s plan of 

correction in a timely manner. 

≈≈ Establish CHAP’s ability to 

provide us with electronic data and 

reports necessary for effective validation 

and assessment of CHAP’s survey 

process. 

≈≈ Determine the adequacy of staff 

and other resources. 

≈≈ Review CHAP’s ability to provide 

adequate funding for performing 

required surveys. 

≈≈ Confirm CHAP’s policies with 

respect to whether surveys are 

announced or unannounced. 

≈≈ Obtain CHAP’s agreement to 

provide us with a copy of the most 

current accreditation survey together 

with any other information related to 

the survey as we may require, including 

corrective action plans. 

In accordance with section 

1865(a)(3)(A) of the Act, the September 

23, 2011 proposed notice (76 FR 59136) 

also solicited public comments 

regarding whether CHAP’s requirements 

met or exceeded the Medicare 

conditions of participation for HHAs. 

We received no public comments in 

response to our proposed notice. 

IV. Provisions of the Final Notice 

A. Differences Between CHAP’s 

Standards and Requirements for 

Accreditation and Medicare’s 

Conditions and Survey Requirements 

We compared the standards and 

survey process contained in CHAP’s 

application with the Medicare HHA 

conditions for participation and our 

State Operations Manual (SOM). Our 

review and evaluation of CHAP’s 

application for continued CMS-approval 

were conducted as described in section 

III of this final notice, and yielded the 

following: 

• To meet the requirements at 

§ 488.12, CHAP revised its accreditation 

decision letters to ensure that they 

contain all the required elements 

necessary for the Regional Office (RO) to 

render a decision regarding approval of 

a provider agreement for participation 

in Medicare. 

• To meet the requirements at 

Chapter Five, section 5075.9 of the 

SOM, CHAP revised its policies to 

ensure all compliant investigations are 

conducted within 45 calendar days, 

following receipt of a complaint that 

does not rise to the level of immediate 

jeopardy. 

• To meet the clinical records 

requirements at Appendix B of the 

SOM, CHAP developed and 

implemented a monitoring plan to 

ensure the minimum number of home 

visits with clinical record reviews is 

completed during a survey. 

• CHAP amended its crosswalk to 

ensure current CHAP standards are 

clearly crosswalked to the following 

regulatory requirements: §§ 484.12(b); 

484.12(c); 484.14(b); 484.14(i)(3); 

484.30(a); 484.32; 484.34(a); 

486.36(b)(3)(ii); 484.36(d)(4)(ii); 

484.36(d)(4)(iii); 484.36(e); 484.38; 

484.48; 484.52; 484.55; 484.55(a)(1); 

485.55(b)(1); and 484.55(d)(2). 

B. Term of Approval 

Based on the review and observations 

described in section III of this final 

notice, we have determined that CHAP’s 

HHA accreditation program 

requirements meet or exceed our 

requirements. Therefore, we approve 

CHAP as a national accreditation 

organization for HHAs that request 

participation in the Medicare program, 

effective March 31, 2012 through March 

31, 2018. 

V. Collection of Information 

Requirements 

This document does not impose 

information collection and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

Consequently, it need not be reviewed 

by the Office of Management and 

Budget under the authority of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(44 U.S.C. 35). 

Authority: Section 1865 of the Social 

Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395bb). 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program No. 93.778, Medical Assistance 

Program; No. 93.773 Medicare—Hospital 

Insurance Program; and No. 93.774, 

Medicare—Supplemental Medical Insurance 

Program) 

Dated: March 12, 2012. 

Marilyn Tavenner, 

Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services. 

[FR Doc. 2012–6598 Filed 3–22–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[CMS–7024–N] 

Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s 

Health Insurance Programs; Meeting of 

the Advisory Panel on Outreach and 

Education (APOE), May 2, 2012 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces a 

meeting of the Advisory Panel on 

Outreach and Education (APOE) (the 

Panel) in accordance with the Federal 

Advisory Committee Act. The Panel 

advises and makes recommendations to 

the Secretary of Health and Human 

Services and the Administrator of the 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services on opportunities to enhance 

the effectiveness of consumer education 

strategies concerning Medicare, 

Medicaid, and the Children’s Health 

Insurance Program (CHIP). This meeting 

is open to the public. 

DATES: Meeting Date: Wednesday, 

May 2, 2012 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., 

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). 

Deadline for Meeting Registration, 

Presentations and Comments: 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 5 p.m., 

EDT. 

Deadline for Requesting Special 

Accommodations: Wednesday, April 18, 

2012, 5 p.m., EDT. 

ADDRESSES: Meeting Location: The 

Embassy Row Hotel, 2015 

Massachusetts Avenue NW., 

Washington, DC 20036. 

Meeting Registration, Presentations, 

and Written Comments: Jennifer 

Kordonski, Designated Federal Official 

(DFO), Division of Forum and 

Conference Development, Office of 

Communications, Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services, 7500 Security 

Boulevard, Mailstop S1–13–05, 

Baltimore, MD 21244–1850 or contact 

Ms. Kordonski via email at 

Jennifer.Kordonski@cms.hhs.gov. 

Registration: The meeting is open to 

the public, but attendance is limited to 

the space available. Persons wishing to 

attend this meeting must register by 

contacting the DFO at the address listed 

in the ‘‘ADDRESSES’’ section of this 

notice or by telephone at the number 

listed in the ‘‘FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT’’ section of this notice, by the 

date listed in the ‘‘DATES’’ section of this 

notice. Individuals requiring sign 

language interpretation or other special 

accommodations should contact the 

DFO at the address listed in the 

‘‘ADDRESSES’’ section of this notice by 

the date listed in the ‘‘DATES’’ section of 

this notice. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jennifer Kordonski, (410) 786–1840, or 

on the Internet at http://www.cms.gov/ 

FACA/04_APOE.asp for additional 

information. Press inquiries are handled 

through the CMS Press Office at (202) 

690–6145. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

In accordance with section 10(a) of 

the Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(FACA), this notice announces a 


srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES