ABC Facility Accreditation Application Deadline January 30, 2009

Make sure with ABC Accreditation.

Under authorization from the U.S. Congress, Medicare has released new Quality Standards (PDF) for all O&P patient care locations.

What does this mean for your facility, and for the O&P profession?

For O&P facilities, this means that if you serve and bill Medicare patients, you must become accredited. The pending regulations are detailed and explained by AOPA's government relations experts in the July 2005 O&P Almanac, pointing out that "accreditation isn't optional." Fortunately, ABC's accreditation program is designed specifically for O&P patient care locations.

For our profession, the Medicare requirements will effectively raise patient care standards to the uniform standards of accreditation. This is an important milestone in the evolution of O&P patient care, as the accreditation standards measuring patient management, quality care, assessment, evaluation, and safety will ensure a basic care level for all Medicare patients. We can expect that the Medicare standards will be adopted by other third party payers.

The benefits of becoming ABC accredited go beyond future Medicare compliance. In the survey process, experienced, certified practitioners bring vast amounts of knowledge of O&P best practices in a consultative approach to work with facilities to meet the accreditation standards.

Furthermore, ABC accredited facilities are eligible for substantial discounts and credits on liability insurance from Cailor-Fleming insurance group.

About ABC Accreditation
ABC implemented its facility accreditation program in 1948 guided by the view that accreditation should be founded upon standards that are broad in scope and focus on those aspects of organizational activities that most directly influence the quality of orthotic and prosthetic patient care. The standards support the ABC mission to provide quality healthcare in O&P practices and consequently help increase efficiency and support initiatives to improve patient outcomes.

The program encompasses comments and recommendations from a variety of resources including the federal government, business owners, clinical practitioners, patients, and healthcare payer and referral sources. The standards were field tested through on-site evaluations and written surveys to representative patient care organizations. As the foremost standard for O&P patient care facilities, ABC accreditation is commonly used as a standard of quality care by insurance companies and regulatory bodies.

Affordable accreditation is key for O&P business owners, and ABC's program is thus designed to be cost effective as a benefit to the profession. This allows ABC to keep application and renewal fees low, especially when compared with larger, more bureaucratic accrediting organizations.

Logo
Accredited Facilities have earned the right to display the ABC Accredited Facility Logo.

If you have questions or need more information about the Facility Accreditation program, contact
Christine Michael
Facility Accreditation Assistant
[email protected]
(703) 836-7114, x 250
Tammi Richards
Facility Accreditation Coordinator
[email protected]
(703) 836-7114 x 230
Scott Williamson
Director, Facility Accreditation
[email protected]
(703) 836-7114 x 223

Official Website: http://www.abcop.org/Facility_Accreditation.asp