Delivering the opening remarks at the 2020 CMS Quality Conference in Washington, D.C., Verma said her agency is “looking at ways to enhance our oversight of accrediting organizations.”

For a willful violation, in which an employer knowingly failed to comply with an OSHA standard or demonstrated a plain indifference for employee safety, the minimum penalty increases from $9,472 to $9,639 and the maximum penalty increases from $132,598 to $134,937;

Researchers found that in an analysis of more than 3,600 hospitals across the country, those that provide care in neighborhoods with higher social risks achieved lower quality scores from CMS.

The updated Interpretive Guidelines for CMS surveyors includes most—but not all—of the new or revised Conditions of Participation for discharge planning and burden reduction outlined in two final rules published in September.

CMS announced the new electronic form and provided instructions on how to use it, including a video, in a Quality, Safety & Oversight Group memo, on December 2.

Infection control dominated the day’s presentations, which also looked at expectations for sterile compounding, Legionella control, using personal protective equipment, medication management, lowering maternal death rates, and, of course, ligature risk and suicide prevention.

In its final action, the EPA explains that new regulations are not necessary to regulate spills of hazardous substances (HS) because the “existing cumulative framework of regulatory requirements adequately serves to prevent and contain CWA HS discharges.”

The August 21 ban on the sewering of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals is the first deadline set out in new regulations published by the EPA in a final rule in February that overall sets up a new category, Subpart P, under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

According to the 2019 HFAP Quality Review, incomplete processes and insufficient documentation were the most-cited standards during 2018 on-site surveys at acute care hospitals, critical access hospitals, laboratories, and ambulatory surgery centers.