SA Planning Annual Workload

4011 - SA Planning Annual Workload (Rev. 1, 05-21-04) The need for professional skills and additional personnel can only be ascertained after the workload is identified and a plan for accomplishing the work is outlined. Since the survey and certification program requires that health facilities be surveyed according to an established coverage level (with leeway permitted to spread the workload, and to integrate it with other programs, where feasible), the SA should find it helpful to set goals by numbers and categories of facilities. The activity plan should establish a program that will permit survey and certification work to be done on an orderly basis throughout the year with a workload distribution as even as possible. Additional workloads caused by amendments to title XVIII or title XIX of the Act are to be treated as separate workload items. The SA checks the range of activities projected for the budget year to identify possible questions relating to survey and certification requirements. If it appears questions would arise, include sufficient details in the activity plan on activities to show justification for survey and certification program support. The “State Survey Agency Certification Workload Report,” Form CMS-434 (see Exhibit 52), is the vehicle for identifying the number of facilities to be surveyed during the year. It must be furnished by the SA as a supplement to the narrative activity plan in order to permit evaluation of the plan in recognition of the quantity and types of work to be accomplished. In addition to the numbers of surveys entered on Form CMS-434, there is data available on the number of instances of certification deficiencies that the SA has identified relative to each of the Conditions of Participation (CoPs). The SA cites the data in the narrative work plan, as appropriate, to show the SA’s need to engage consultants in particular specialty areas or to explain why the SA requests the Secretary’s concurrence to give selective emphasis to particular facets of program activity.