The Department of Health and Human Services expects to release a draft action plan regarding the reduction of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) before the next president takes office, the agency said this week.

The plan will provide a guideline for the next administration to begin reducing HAIs, the department said. As part of its plan, the department will set national HAI reduction goals, implement a series of benchmarks and find a way to coordinate its resources to the task. The plan was spurred in part by the Government Accountability Office’s report in March recommending that the agency better organize its HAI information (McKnight’s, 4/21).

Information about the draft action plan was made at a HHS conference focused on changes to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services inpatient prospective payment system. Recently, CMS issued a list of preventable conditions for which it will no longer reimburse healthcare providers (McKnight’s, 8/7). These “never events” will go into effect October 1.