The LBJ Hospital is awaiting word from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services on whether its Plan of Corrections to address deficiencies and non compliance conditions for Medicare coverage meets the federal agency’s satisfaction.
The plan was submitted by LBJ on time last Thursday, something LBJ CEO Taufetee John Faumuina says is unprecedented.
The hospital has always had to request additional time to respond to CMS inspection reports.
LBJ was notified by CMS on April 27 that the Dialysis Unit was not in compliance with Medicare coverage conditions and the LBJ was given up to last Thursday to submit a Plan of Corrections outlining how it planned to correct the deficiencies, with a timeline on implementation, how to prevent a repeat of such non compliance and also the name of the person responsible for carrying out the plan.
If that doesn’t happen, or if the plan doesn’t meet CMS satisfaction, the federal agency warned it would initiate a process which may result in termination of LBJ’s Medicare coverage of the Endstage Renal Disease Facility at midnight on October 31st, 2016.
KHJ News asked LBJ CEO Taufetee if CMS has responded or indicated if LBJ’s Correction Plan is satisfactory to them.
He replied, “No, not yet. It takes time for them to go over our POCs (Plan of Corrections) before they get back to us.”
Taufetee said this is the normal exercise when CMS comes down to conduct a survey of LBJ.
We asked what steps LBJ is taking on its own in the meantime to ensure that deficiencies found in the re-visit survey don’t re-occur.
The CEO says they conduct their own unannounced mock survey similar to that conducted by CMS, which is called only by the CEO with his management team.
Taufetee stressed: “We have to make sure that we do what we say in the reports. This is the only way for us to gain trust and confidence of CMS. The mock survey was initiated when I was here before and it worked real well. I am re-enforcing it again now.
