The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care won approval from the CMS to continue through December 2018 as an accrediting body for ambulatory surgery centers.

The CMS announced the approval, which is required every six years for accrediting bodies, in a notice (PDF) posted on the Office of the Federal Register's website. Federal health officials reviewed the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care's criteria against Medicare's conditions for ambulatory surgery centers and visited the association to examine its corporate policies, finances, surveyor training and oversight, its ability to conduct investigations and its survey review and decision-making. The CMS also reviewed documents for multiple criteria, including the ability to use electronic data and reports for certain validation and assessment purposes, the notice said.

The notice said the CMS compared criteria used by Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Medicare and the State Operations Manual and that the review and evaluation yielded some revisions to the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care’s standards and modification to certain policies.