It’s About Time: Medicare Providers, Suppliers, and CLIA Laboratories No Longer Required to Write Plan of Correction on Right Side of Form 2567

This announcement formally came on June 16, 2017, when the Director of the CMS Survey & Certification Group issued a memorandum to the Directors of the State Survey Agencies providing guidance for the new format of POCs and AOCs.    

CMS has used its two-column Form 2567 for decades when issuing SODs to entities that participate in the Medicare program.  In the Form 2567, CMS provided language regarding the deficiencies in the left column, and had required the entity to detail its corrections in the right column, directly opposite the corresponding deficiency.  Formatting a POC to fit the Form 2567, per CMS requirements, has caused headaches for providers and suppliers for years, adding an extra administrative burden to an already time-sensitive and stressful process of determining and implementing appropriate corrections.
    
Effective immediately, providers, suppliers and CLIA laboratories will no longer be required to write their POCs (and AOCs for CLIA laboratories) on the right side of the Form 2567, but may choose instead either to submit their POC/AOC as a separate attachment to the SOD, or to use the right side of the Form 2567, as in the past. The provider or supplier representative or the laboratory director is still required to sign the first page of the Form 2567, and the announcement does not change the required components of a POC/AOC – but simply having the option of using a separate document to submit the POC/AOC is reason enough to applaud the new guidance.
    
Arent Fox’s Health Care practice has extensive experience in assisting Medicare suppliers, providers, and CLIA laboratories in successfully responding to Statements of Deficiencies.