PORT ANGELES — The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has notified Olympic Medical Center that it is back in compliance with its standards of care after a state Department of Health survey last month.
CMS said a termination date of Oct. 10, when its Medicare certification would end, has been rescinded, according to OMC.
Medicare requires that facilities comply with its health, safety, billing and other requirements before being eligible for reimbursement.
CMS will issue the official back-in-compliance notice when the federal government shutdown has ended.
“This is a result of the hard work and dedication of our employees, managers and providers,” Mark Gregson, OMC’s interim CEO, said in a statement. “We are thankful to CMS for working with us throughout this process. Our plan is to keep this going and be ‘survey ready’ every day.”
The announcement Thursday evening followed a DOH visit, which occurred Sept. 22-25.
OMC’s troubles with its Medicare eligibility began in February, when the DOH conducted its first survey of the hospital since 2018. Health inspectors identified significant violations, requiring OMC to submit a plan of correction. But when inspectors returned in April for a resurvey, they determined many of the previous deficiencies hadn’t been corrected, and they identified new ones.
Their findings prompted CMS to issue the first of four termination notices, each warning that OMC’s participation in Medicare was at risk if it didn’t remedy the deficiencies.
Over the past eight months, OMC cycled through DOH resurveys and plans of correction — a pattern that wasn’t broken until September, when the hospital hired health care consulting firm Chartis for $248,000 to help it meet CMS compliance standards.
“We can’t say enough how grateful we are and how proud we are of all the people who worked so hard on this,” OMC board President Ann Henninger said.
Peninsula Daily News has pending public records requests for OMC’s DOH surveys, Statements of Deficiencies, Plans of Corrections and CMS termination notices.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
Medicare survey process
The state Department of Health (DOH) conducts surveys for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that verify how well hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities comply with Medicare conditions of participation requirements. All DOH visits are unannounced.
If the DOH finds areas that don’t meet those requirements, it sends the facility a Statement of Deficiencies that documents the specific rule that was violated, its severity, what the facility must do to correct the problem and the time frame in which they must do it.
The facility has 10 calendar days in which to respond to the DOH with a detailed Plan of Correction outlining how it will correct each of the deficiencies and prevent them from happening again. If the DOH accepts the plan of correction, it resurveys the facility to determine if the deficiencies have been corrected; it also can identify new deficiencies.
If the facility has corrected the deficiencies, there is no further action. If the facility hasn’t corrected them or they pose a risk to patient health and safety, CMS issues a letter of termination.
The letter is sent 30 days before the date when Medicare participation will end if the deficiencies remain uncorrected or if the facility doesn’t submit a suitable plan of correction.
