Bill Provides Greater Federal Oversight Over JCAHO.

On July 20, 2004, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced legislation that would give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") additional oversight authority over the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations ("JCAHO"). Rep. Stark and Sen. Grassley introduced the legislation in response to a Government Accountability Office report that concluded increased CMS oversight of JCAHO was necessary in order to better protect the safety of hospital patients. Asserting that JCAHO accreditation should be "the gold standard, not a rubber stamp," Sen. Grassley noted that validation surveys conducted by the federal government at 157 JCAHO-accredited hospitals found between one and six serious deficiencies at each of the hospitals, and further, that during the three-year study period, JCAHO denied accreditation to only three hospitals.

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