Plan of correction

Definition

The written fix a licensed provider files after a survey finds it deficient.

Why It Matters

A survey of a licensed or certified provider ends in a statement of deficiencies, and the provider answers it in writing. Federal rules make that answer a condition of taking part at all: 42 CFR 488.28(a) lets a deficient provider participate in Medicare only if it has submitted an acceptable plan of correction within a timeframe the agency accepts, and 488.28(d) says compliance is ordinarily expected within sixty days of notice. For a buyer the plan is worth more than the deficiency list beside it, because it records what the seller promised to change and by when, and an open one arrives as an operating constraint, not a piece of history. Ask for every statement of deficiencies and its plan across the last three survey cycles, then ask which items were cited more than once.