Medicare Officials Back Off a Proposal to Make Hospital Inspection Reports Publicly Available; CLIA Inspections of Medical Laboratories Are Still Not Public
The Joint Commission opposed the Medicare proposal, and patient advocate groups say rescinding it is a setback for hospital transparency
Powerful interests arrayed against greater transparency in the performance of hospitals, physicians, and medical laboratories have stopped a proposed Medicare program that would have allowed the public to see the results of hospital inspections.
Stopped in its tracks was an effort by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to make hospital accreditation inspection reports available for public viewing. Opposition to this program led CMS to withdraw its plan for heightened transparency.
CMS originally called the proposal “groundbreaking” in a National Public Radio (NPR) article. That’s because it would have enabled consumers to view reports that private accreditation organizations, such as The Joint Commission, complete after each inspection. Inspection reports contain information on errors and problems found during hospital surveys. CMS’ push for more transparency in hospital inspections is consistent with the healthcare industry’s trend toward open sharing of healthcare quality, price, and other data.
“We are proposing changes relating to transparency of accrediting organizations survey reports and plans of correction of providers and suppliers,” CMS officials wrote in a proposed rule published on April 28.
CMS Pulls Back Proposal to Make Hospital Survey Reports Public
But it was not to be. After receiving comments, CMS officials stated in early August that the agency had pulled back the proposal.
“CMS is committed to ensuring that patients have the ability to review the findings used to determine that a facility meets the health and safety standards required for Medicare participation. However, we believe further review, consideration, and refinement of this proposal is necessary to ensure that CMS establishes requirements, consistent with our statutory authority, that will inform patients and continue to support high quality care,” noted a CMS fact sheet.
Agencies Find Problems in Hospitals That Accreditors Do Not, CMS Declares
It’s against federal law for CMS to release data related to hospital inspections, Becker’s Hospital Review reported. And, as part of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), clinical laboratories must participate in inspections to ensure they qualify for Medicare and Medicaid payments. However, the inspection reports of the nation’s medical laboratories are not made public.
So, what motivated CMS to make healthcare organizations’ inspection information public? CMS noted that private accreditation organizations miss serious provider problems that state inspectors find in follow-up visits to hospitals, ProPublica explained.
In fact, state agency reviews of 103 hospitals in 2014 found 41 serious deficiencies, including 39 missed by the accreditors, noted the NPR article.
The chart above based on Johns Hopkins research was compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics and reported by The Washington Post. It shows that medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the US. (Photo copyright: The Washington Post.)
“Right now, the public has very little information about the places where they’re putting their life on the line, and that’s just not acceptable. If [they are] a good place, what are they afraid of?” Rosemary Gibson, Senior Advisor at The Hastings Center, stated in the NPR article.
Reaction from Accreditors and Consumer Groups Differs
The Joint Commission opposed the CMS proposal. And, now, patient safety advocacy groups are disappointed about the decision by Medicare officials to rescind the proposed program.
“We believe the proposal will have significant detrimental consequences on our nation’s ability to continually improve the delivery of healthcare services,” stated Mark Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, Joint Commission President and Chief Executive Officer, in a June letter to CMS published partially in an HCPro blog post.
HCPro, a firm that aids organizations in accreditation, credentialing, and other needs, noted the following Joint Commission concerns about publicly shared survey reports in the blog post:
- Providers may be less likely to be open about opportunities for improvement;
- Accreditors could struggle to create new standards;
- The number of non-accredited facilities may increase;
- Accreditation may be devalued; and,
- Costs to providers and accreditors would likely rise.
The Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality (CIHQ), another accreditation option for hospitals, also expressed concerns with the CMS proposal, according to the ProPublica report.
“Knowing that survey [inspection] reports are public knowledge will only incentivize hospitals and other healthcare entities to go back to the days of ‘hiding’ quality of care issues from accreditors, rather than working with us to improve the quality and safety of care rendered to patients,” CIHQ advised in the ProPublica article.
The Leapfrog Group, which bills itself as an advocate of hospital transparency, called the reversed proposal “a disappointing setback for healthcare transparency.”
In a statement, Leah Binder, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Leapfrog Group, noted, “We are disappointed to learn that the agency that runs Medicare (CMS) has reversed course on its proposal to require private accrediting organizations, such as the Joint Commission, to publicly release reports of problems they found in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. The public deserves full transparency on how the healthcare industry performs.”
Clearly the public is calling for increased transparency in healthcare. As are many organizations and industry journals, such as the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), which presented a national award to Ellen Gabler, an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her work covering weaknesses in inspections for clinical laboratories. (See Dark Daily, “Journalists Take Home Top National Awards for Their Work Covering Theranos and the Clinical Laboratory Industry,” May 16, 2016.)
Some Accreditation Information Available Online
So, for the time being, it appears that what is found during hospital inspections will stay within the inspection report and will not become available to the general public. However, with consumers expecting greater transparency and higher levels of service in all aspects of healthcare, the interest in public access to the quality performance of hospitals, physicians, clinical laboratories, and anatomic pathology groups will only increase.
Meanwhile, for patients interested in existing resources about provider quality, The Joint Commission has an online “find a gold star healthcare organization” quality check. Also, the American College of Surgeons publishes an online search for accredited facilities. And, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers an online search for CLIA accredited labs.
—Donna Marie Pocius
Related Information:
Secret Data on Hospital Inspections May Become Public At Last
Proposed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Rule
Changes to the Application and Reapplication Procedures for National Accrediting Organizations
CMS Backs Off Proposal to Make Hospital Accredited Investigations Public; Five Things to Know
Accreditors Can Keep Their Hospital Inspection Reports Secret, Feds Decide
Joint Commission Comments on Proposed CMS Transparency Rule
Disappointing Setback for Healthcare Transparency
