CMS Suspends Surveys In Colo., Elsewhere Amid Covid-19 Crisis

Saying it is committed to "taking critical steps to ensure America’s health care facilities and clinical laboratories are prepared to respond to the threat of the COVID-19 and other respiratory illness," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services today suspended non-emergency inspections across the country, allowing inspectors to turn their focus on the most serious health and safety threats like infectious diseases and abuse.

This shift in approach will also allow inspectors to focus on addressing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the agency said in a memorandum to State Survey Agencies.

Margaret Mohan, Branch Chief, Acute Care and Nursing Facilities for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said her agency would be releasing "additional guidance in the near future" regarding State Licensure inspections.

Effective immediately, CMS survey activity is limited to the following (in Priority Order):

  • All immediate jeopardy complaints (cases that represents a situation in which entity noncompliance has placed the health and safety of recipients in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment or death or harm) and allegations of abuse and neglect;
  • Complaints alleging infection control concerns, including facilities with potential COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses;
    • Statutorily required recertification surveys (Nursing Home, Home Health, Hospice, and ICF/IID facilities);
    • Any re-visits necessary to resolve current enforcement actions;
    • Initial certifications;
    • Surveys of facilities/hospitals that have a history of infection control deficiencies at the immediate jeopardy level in the last three years;
    • Surveys of facilities/hospitals/dialysis centers that have a history of infection control deficiencies at lower levels than immediate jeopardy.

Full memorandum