Why is CMS requiring Joint Commission to accredit hospitals in accordance with their CCN?
The CMS identifies the boundaries of a hospital in terms of what locations it has identified on its Form CMS 855A application (including all subsequent 855As submitted with location updates); all of these locations are covered under the same CCN associated with this application. Therefore, the compliance of a hospital, as measured by an accreditation award, must be assessed in accordance with the CCN. When there is not a one-to-one match between an accreditation award and a CCN, noncompliance with the CoPs is likely. For example, when a hospital participates in Medicare as a multi-campus hospital with four inpatient locations, it must have one governing body, and one unified medical and nursing staff for all campuses. Medicare regulations do not permit independent compliance with the CoPs at separate locations of a hospital. Further, serious non-compliance at any one campus impacts the participation of all campuses in Medicare since they participate as only one hospital. If at the same
