The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS is the federal agency that administers the Medicare program and monitors the Medicaid programs offered by each state. Their responsibilities include conducting comprehensive on-site reviews of all transplant programs. Reviewers focus on charting in random charts, minutes of selection board meetings, hospital rounds on transplanted patients and interviews with members of the transplant team including social workers, nurses and physicians. They can attend clinics and interview patients and/or their families. CMS surveyors have the ability to investigate any program at anytime. If there are concerns about procedures or survival statistics an unannounced visit may be conducted.

Additional information regarding CMS and its programs is available here.

The CMS Survey takes place at least every 3 years but can be sooner if problems are identified.

The certification and compliance rules for the survey can be found here.

Additional rules can be found in the Federal Register. There is a search component in the website.

Transplant centers are defined in Part 482 Conditions of Participation, Subpart E: Requirements for Specialty Hospitals. The standard for social services is found in 482.94 (d).