Clarification

Last week, Medical Staff Leader Connection reported that The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated its hospital Conditions of Participation (CoP). We’d like to clarify that CMS updated Appendix A of the State Operations Manual, which provides the interpretive guidelines for the Hospital regulatory standards CoP for the first time since 2004. Many of the changes were previously released by CMS in Survey and Certification policy memos updating the interpretive guidelines. The rest reflect changes to the CoPs adopted late in 2006.