On February 29, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) filed a Final Rule regarding Improvements for the 2017 Health Insurance Marketplace. In the notice, CMS finalized the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirement that beginning on January 1, 2017, a hospital with more than 50 beds that wants to participate in the Healthcare Insurance Marketplace must conduct work through a Patient Safety Evaluation System as defined in 42 CFR 3.20, which requires the use of a Patient Safety Organization (PSO), with few exceptions.

As one of the nation's first and most trusted Patient Safety Organizations, we at Clarity PSO have been watching for this notice very carefully. The January 1, 2017 mandate impacts all organizations with more than 50 beds, and we've found that the vast majority of such organizations have not yet begun the process of Patient Safety Organization participation.

Healthcare providers and the federal government remain committed to enhancing the safety of our healthcare delivery system, and both are seeing the impact that PSOs can have on achieving that goal. We are proud to be a founding PSO and to serve the healthcare providers who contract with us for our products, services and insights.

 "We now have the ability to gain insights into matters that have traditionally been very difficult to understand. By sharing data with a PSO, you put an extra set of clinical, analytical eyes on your patient safety picture, and with a little Clarity, that picture starts to come into focus." - Tom Piotrowski, Executive Director, Clarity PSO