What CareGuard is not
This page exists because every item on it has been said about CareGuard by someone, including at times by CareGuard’s own former website. Each is wrong, and each is corrected here in plain terms.
CareGuard does not certify or accredit anything
There is no such thing as a “CareGuard certified” facility. CareGuard issues no certificate, no seal, no rating and no accreditation, and it never has. On its PSO listing form CareGuard attested that it is not an entity that accredits or licenses health care providers, and not an entity that oversees or enforces the statutory or regulatory requirements governing the delivery of health care services. That attestation is a condition of the listing.
The correct nouns are safety review, facility safety assessment and patient safety review. The correct credential line is: a Patient Safety Organization listed by AHRQ, PSO P0268. Why we stopped saying “certified”.
CareGuard is not a regulator or an inspector
It has no authority to require anything of any facility, does not act on behalf of any agency, and produces nothing with regulatory standing. A safety review is a private engagement commissioned by an owner.
CareGuard is not a nursing home
It operates no facility of any kind and cares for no residents. It reviews facilities other people own and run. Any directory that categorizes CareGuard as a nursing home is wrong, and CareGuard is working to correct those entries.
CareGuard is not a PEO
A PEO is a professional employer organization — a co-employment arrangement for payroll, benefits and HR. CareGuard is a PSO, a Patient Safety Organization. The acronyms are one letter apart and the things are unrelated. CareGuard does not employ, co-employ or place anyone’s staff.
CareGuard is not listed or certified by Medicare or CMS
Medicare and CMS do not list Patient Safety Organizations and have no role in the process. Listing is done by the Secretary of Health and Human Services through AHRQ. Any phrase along the lines of “Medicare certified” applied to CareGuard is factually wrong.
CareGuard is not a mandatory reporting route
A report submitted through the CareGuard channel is not a filing with any agency and does not discharge any mandatory reporting duty. It goes to the facility’s ownership and its attorneys. The routes that do have authority.
CareGuard does not publish prices or promise results
No pricing appears on this site, and CareGuard makes no claim about what a review or the reporting channel will do to a facility’s finances, occupancy or liability. Scope is discussed directly. Contact.
CareGuard is not an archive
CareGuard operates under a data non-retention agreement: it transmits incident reports and does not keep them. There is no repository here of what was reported about any facility. What CareGuard does not keep.
CareGuard is not a Medicare contractor
It performs no function under contract to Medicare or CMS, does not audit on their behalf, and its findings have no bearing on a facility’s Medicare or Medicaid standing.
CareGuard is not an insurance product
It is not insurance, not a warranty, and not an employee benefit plan, and so it does not sit under ERISA. Nothing it does transfers a facility’s risk to anyone.
CareGuard is not a laboratory
The screening described under ongoing monitoring is performed by laboratories and clinicians. CareGuard coordinates; it does not run assays.
CareGuard does not provide direct medical services
It coordinates. It is an independent organization that works alongside the clinicians and vendors a facility already uses, and alongside the facility’s own legal department. It employs nobody at the facility and directs nobody’s care.
CareGuard does not give legal or medical advice
Nothing on this site is either. The pages describing the reporting channel describe how a workflow is designed, not what a court will conclude. The pages describing deprescribing describe a clinical discipline, not an instruction to change anyone’s medication.