Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc.

ACHC NEWS

BREAKING NEWS

CMS RELEASES DMEPOS DEADLINES

CMS has released the accreditation deadline dates for the second round of competitive bidding. The details are:

Suppliers must be accredited or have applied for accreditation by May 14, 2008 to submit a bid for the second round of competitive bidding. CMS cannot accept a bid from any supplier that is not accredited or that has not applied for accreditation by May 14, 2008.
Suppliers will need to be accredited to be awarded a contract. The accreditation deadline for the second round of competitive bidding is October 31, 2008. Suppliers must be accredited before this date to be awarded a contract. Suppliers should apply for accreditation immediately to allow adequate time to process their applications.

In order to ensure suppliers that wish to be accredited by ACHC are properly surveyed and accreditation results reported to CMS in a timely manner, ACHC has established the following deadlines:

The application for accreditation and the deposit must be received by ACHC by 5pm EST on May 14, 2008.
The Preliminary Evidence Report (PER) must be received by ACHC by 5pm EST on May 30, 2008 to guarantee the pre-survey review that is normally provided by ACHC. Suppliers that submit PERs after May 30 waive their right to this review.
PERs received after June 30, 2008 will not be guaranteed to receive a survey prior to the October deadline.
All surveys will be conducted by September 19, 2008 in order to ensure that deficiencies found on the survey can be corrected by the supplier by the October 31 deadline.

ACHC staff will adhere to these deadlines. Questions should be directed to the account manager assigned to your company or by calling 919-785-1214 and speaking with an Accreditation Department Representative.

ACHC = Potential $ Savings

A small HME provider recovered $20,773.80 using an ACHC Quality Improvement (QI) Standard.

Read the letter here to see the proof. Adobe Acrobat

Customer Satisfaction Results

ACHC has long had the reputation of providing outstanding Customer Service. Effective immediately we'll begin sharing our results with you. Our Customer Satisfaction ratings will be prominently displayed on our web site. These results are from our telephone surveys with companies who've recently gone through the accreditation process. We're proud of our results and look forward to showing you our ongoing commitment to providing world-class customer service. Click here to see the results.

Accreditation Checklist for Success

ACHC is pleased to announce that a new publication is now available to DME companies. The checklist includes practical questions about policies and procedures that will help providers understand and focus on what must be in the content of their policies and procedures. Sample interview questions and observations that are typically asked and looked at by the surveyor during the actual survey are included. It is designed as a workbook with ample space for comments and notes. The step-by-step guide helps the applicant walk through what is required for being accredited. This great tool can be used to conduct a company-wide mock survey.

Workbook ordering information.

Inc. Magazine 5,000 List

ACHC was selected to appear on Inc. Magazines list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies in America. Inc. proudly recognizes the importance of growing entrepreneurial companies that are changing with the business landscape. With the many challenges associated with building and operating a business, Inc. is keenly aware of what a tremendous achievement a spot on their list represents. For more than 25 years, Inc. Magazine has celebrated the remarkable achievements of today’s entrepreneurial men and women leading the 500 fastest-growing companies with the annual Inc. 500 list. This year, Inc.com presented the Inc. 5,000 – the first ever expansion of the Inc. 500 list. These new honorees were a part of the Annual Inc. 500 Conference and Awards Ceremony in Chicago. Tom Cesar, ACHC President said, “I am just thrilled at where we have come over these past years. We have a great team making these things happen”.

Paper or Paperless! It’s Your Choice!

ACHC recently celebrated the first anniversary of Customer Central; an innovative web site exclusively for ACHC customers. Customer Central was developed to enhance customer service by providing easy access to information needed throughout the accreditation process.

When a customer purchases an Accreditation Manual from ACHC, they are assigned a user name and password to the web site that gives them immediate access to ACHC standards, policies, Preliminary Evidence Report (PER) form and other information.

A major benefit of the website is the ability to download the PER. The PER is a document used for pre-survey review of an organization’s policies and procedures. Once an organization has completed the PER, the information can easily be submitted to ACHC on a CD or USB device. Since most organizations have their policies and procedures in some type of electronic format, it is an easy process to copy the information to a CD or a USB device and simply mail to ACHC. No longer does an organization need to struggle with copying volumes of documents nor do they have the expense of mailing a large package. ACHC encourages organizations to submit the PER in this format, however we still accept paper PERs from organizations with less than 20 locations. Paper or paperless: it’s your choice!