Accreditation

CMS updates State Operations Manual for first time since 2015

Briefings on Accreditation and Quality, February 1, 2018

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Update: A prior version of this article stated the most current manual is from November 17, 2017. But CMS later amended the document on December 29, 2017. 

For the first time in two years, the online version of CMS’ State Operations Manual, Appendix A—also known as SOMA by some—has been revised.

The date on the appendix, which offers CMS surveyors Interpretive Guidelines to follow when implementing the hospital Conditions of Participation (CoP), is now Decemeber 29, 2017. The last revision had been published in November 2015.

CMS officials have said that while it regularly updates the guidelines to reflect new guidance or regulatory changes, those updates are first announced through survey-and-certification (S&C) memos to state and regional CMS offices. The full SOMA is not updated until later through a government contractor, who has apparently been a little behind.

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