CHCC expects CMS update this week

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. expects the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide it with an update this week on the status of its condition of participation in Medicare.

CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muna told Saipan Tribune yesterday that a couple of things are to be expected from CMS due to the resurvey it did on the Commonwealth Health Center on Sept. 8.

The public hospital faces three possible options: outright termination of the hospital’s Medicare provider agreement, which would loss of millions of federal dollars; another extension for the hospital to address specific concerns raised by CMS; or recertification of the hospital.

“They won’t necessarily recertify the hospital but, of course, we are hoping for the latter, not the extension. I know that definitely they saw some improvements [in the last resurvey]. It was a bit challenging for us because, while we were correcting the compliance issues with CMS, we were also putting in the electronic health records or EHR,” Muña said.

During the installation of the EHR systems, CMS noticed documentation issues, in which the hospital was fully aware of prior to the resurvey.

“As much as we want it to be perfect, it is difficult to be perfect when we’re implementing something and correcting something at the same time. Then the survey came. I am not trying look for excuses. The issue is we cannot have many excuses every time we’re not compliant, but we have addressed it and along with the other issues that CMS had cited us for,” Muña said.

“But again, the question there is: Is it good enough to remove the termination? I cannot answer. Basically CMS has to make that administrative decision, but at the end of the day we will continue to make our services better for the administration and our people,” she added.

CMS put off its decision in mid-January and in June this year, and gave the healthcare corporation another five months to correct problems previously cited by CMS. The prospective date of termination of CHC’s Medicare provider agreement was then extended to Nov. 14, 2014, which is tomorrow.

CMS resurveyed the hospital on Sept. 8 to 12. At the time, Muña said that CMS looked at medical records, medical staff files, and several areas of the hospital that included the pharmacy, laboratory, operating room, and the hospital’s heat, ventilation, and air-conditioning system or HVAC.