New Bill May Repeal Joint Commission's Statutory Protection

This month the U.S. House and Senate passed different versions of The Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007, which amends titles XVIII, XIX, and XXI of the Social Security Act to extend and improve the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  The two bills must be reconciled in conference before being sent on to the President for signature. House and Senate conferees are expected to be named after Congress returns from its August recess. Mr. Bush has threatened to veto both versions of the bill. (Washington Watch provides a detailed summary.)

Although the bill has evoked considerable comment and controversy, one seemingly unrelated provision in the House version, cited as Section 507, has gone largely unnoticed. 

H.R. 3162, Section 507: Revocation of Deeming Authority of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).  Repeals JCAHO's unique statutory protection, effective eighteen months after enactment.

As The Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 sails through Congress, the Joint Commission’s deeming authority may be sinking in its wake. Section 507 of the House Bill revokes the unique statutory protection and deeming authority that the Joint Commission (formerly Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization or JCAHO) enjoys under existing Federal law. The significance of this revocation seems lost in the hoopla surrounding the pending passage of this bill.

Read the full text of Joint Commission's Deeming Authority Under Fire by Lisa Venn, J.D., M.A., and Rita Schwab, CPCS, CPMSM

Follow-up article October 3, 2007: Now You See It; Now You Don't

Comments

[Kim]

This is big! How could something as potentially significant to hosptials be flying under the radar? Is there any lobbying/involvement by the AHA or any other hospital group to get this passed...or not passed.
Then again the ramifications to hospitals would not yet be known - if I understand correctly, they could be certified for free as opposed to paying the Joint Commission for the privilege.

Nice article, by the way! : )

[Rita Schwab]

Kim - I've been surprised too that there hasn't been much comment about this yet. I suspect it's because Section 507 is not in the bill passed by the Senate, just the version passed by the House of Representatives. Perhaps there is an expectation that it will get weeded out when the bills are reconciled.

As for the matter of hospitals getting a free accreditation survey, they can do that now if they choose. CMS will send government surveyors in to review a hospital's compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation, or a hospital can contract with either Joint Commission or The American Osteopathic Association to conduct a survey.

I suppose it's a testament to just how scared we all are of Federal investigators that nearly every hospital pays to be surveyed by JC or AOA. : )

Rita