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(EMAILWIRE.COM, April 04, 2012 ) Chicago, IL -- The American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, Inc. (AAAASF) has been approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as the Deeming Authority to accredit Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) for Medicare or Medicaid.
This makes AAAASF a national accreditation program for new RHCs, as well as those clinics currently under the RHC Medicare program.
“We have been a deeming authority for ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) since the late 1990s and became aware of a need for third party inspection and accreditation in the RHC Medicare field. Our RHC accreditation program will help improve the quality of patient care in rural health clinics through a rigorous inspection and Medicare Certification. We recognize that rural health clinics are a vastly underserved community and require help with the Medicare process,” said Harlan Pollock, M.D., President of AAAASF. “AAAASF can immediately begin offering Medicare Certification to owners and operators of rural health clinics, greatly reducing the once lengthy wait for CMS inspection and certification,” he added.
The Rural Health Clinic Services Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-210) was enacted to address an inadequate supply of physicians serving Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas and to increase the utilization of non-physician practitioners such as nurse practitioners (NP) and physician assistants (PA) in rural areas. There are thousands of RHCs nationwide that provide access to primary care services in rural areas.
“AAAASF, as the Deeming Authority for Rural Health Clinics, can now begin the Medicare Accreditation process for many clinics already in line to start the process. Those applications and survey scheduling will be processed according to the date the application was received. AAAASF is proud to offer superior customer service, reasonable fees and timely surveys for new clinics and clinics seeking renewal,” added Dr. Pollock. He noted that members of the National Association of Rural Health Clinics (NARHC) can receive a discount off annual fees.
Rural Health Clinic Services
RHCs furnish physician services; services and supplies incident to the services of a physician; NP, PA, certified nurse midwife (CNM), clinical psychologist (CP), and clinical social worker (CSW) services; Services and supplies incident to the services of a NP, PA, CNM, CP, and CSW; Medicare Part B covered drugs that are furnished by and incident to services of a RHC provider; and Visiting nurse services to the homebound in an area where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has certified that there is a shortage of Home Health Agencies.
Medicare Certification as a Rural Health Clinic
To qualify as a RHC, a clinic must be located in a non-urbanized area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau; and an area currently designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration as one of the following types of Federally designated or certified shortage areas: Primary Care Geographic Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) under Section 332(a)(1)(A) of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act; Primary Care Population-Group HPSA under Section 332(a)(1)(B) of the PHS Act; Medically Underserved Area under Section 330(b)(3) of the PHS Act; or Governor-designated and Secretary-certified shortage area under Section 6213(c) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989.
To link to the Federal Register that verifies AAAASF deeming authority for RHCs, visit http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-03-23/pdf/2012-6331.pdf
About AAAASF
The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, Inc. was established in 1980 to develop an accreditation program to standardize and improve the quality of medical and surgical care in ambulatory surgery facilities while assuring the public of high standards for patient care and safety in an accredited facility.
Today more than 2000 ambulatory surgery facilities are accredited by AAAASF, the largest not-for-profit accrediting organization in the United States. Many more facilities are in process for accreditation. These numbers have increased dramatically over the last two years. Surgeons, legislators, state and national health agencies and patients acknowledge that AAAASF stands alone as the program setting the "Gold Standard" for quality patient care.
For more information about AAAASF RHC Medicare/Medicaid accreditation, visit www.rhcaccreditation.org.
Contact:
Jaime Trevino / Communications Director
jaime@aaaasf.org / 847-775-1970
www.aaaasf.org
AAAASF
Jaime Trevino / Communications Director
847-775-1970
jaime@aaaasf.org 
Source: EmailWire.com
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