Friday, July 26, 2013

CMS Grants the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality (CIHQ) Deeming Authority

On Friday, July 26, 2013, CMS announced that it approved the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality (CIHQ) as a new deeming authority for acute-care hospitals.  CIHQ joins the ranks of DNV, HFAP, and TJC as the only national accrediting organizations with CMS-deeming authority. 

Established in 1999 as a healthcare consulting company for accreditation and regulatory support, CIHQ began to transition into an accrediting organization in 2011 and formally requested deeming authority from CMS in February 2013.  CIHQ uses CMS’s conditions of participation (CoPs) for its regulatory standards, in addition to a few of its own that cover “gaps in the COPs in the areas of patient safety and quality care.”

CIHQ is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas and focuses largely on acute care and critical- access hospitals.  Its deeming authority is effective July 26, 2013 through July 26, 2017. 

Learn more about CIHQ here.