Seeking Medicare Accreditation

Home Health Care agencies seeking accreditation ( Medicare accreditation, Medicaid Accreditation, Private pay accreditation) have the option to choose from several deemed Medicare, Medicaid and private pay accreditation companies. CHAP, which stands for The Community Health Accreditation program offers a variety of CHAP accreditation services that include CHAP Medicare accreditation, CHAP Medicaid accreditation and CHAP private pay accreditation services. JCAHO, stands for the Joint Commission and also offers a variety of Medicare accreditation services. Like CHAP, JCAHO also offers JCAHO Medicare accreditation, JCAHO Medicaid accreditation and JCAHO Private Pay accreditation.

Seeking JCAHO Medicare accreditation? Seeking CHAP Medicare accreditation?

Here is a comparison of CHAP VS JCAHO (The differences between CHAP Accreditation and JCAHO Accreditation)

1. The difference between CHAP and JCAHO is that CHAP primarily offers accreditation services for Home health. JCAHO is best known for its hospital accreditation process and is organizationally focused. CHAP offers accreditation services for Home Health Care, Hospice, DME, Infusion, and Pharmacy.

2. JCAHO / The Joint Commission offers accreditation for Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, Office base surgery, Long term care, Home care, Ambulatory Care, Behavioral Health.

3. Most home health care agencies that chose CHAP over JCAHO do so because they feel that JCAHO is known in the industry for its hospital accreditation process and how this reflects on what is required for a home health care agency to be compliant.

4. The Home Health Care agencies that choose CHAP tend to do so because of the compliance process geared toward home health and patient care.

5. Both Chap and JCAHO are months behind in the time frame for their accreditation site surveys. Although very similar, I am told that JCAHO/ the Joint Commission has a 8 to 9 month wait for survey. CHAP/ the Community Health Accreditation Program has about 6 to 7 month wait. Note these times vary and can change based on their volume and number of site surveyor in the field.

6. Those comparing JCAHO VS CHAP accreditation process should expect both to have surveyors who offer hands-on evaluations by being out in the field talking to patients, interviewing staff and understanding how we the agency does business. Their ultimate goal is to increase agency efficiency, save the organization money and improve patient care.

7. Both have a similar cost factor for their services although CHAP Is somewhat less expensive.

8. Both require a minimum of a three day site visit for home health care agencies seeking Medicare accreditation, Medicaid accreditation or private pay accreditation (existing agencies with a high patient census could require additional days)

Click here to read more about why Accreditation is important.

Contact information for the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) and the Joint Commission (JCAHO)
Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP)
www.chapinc.org
Phone: 1-800-656-9656

The Joint Commission (JCAHO)
www.jointcommission.org
Phone 1-630-792-5000