Frequently Asked Questions

When you contact ACG, one of our consultants will contact you and ask some questions about your organization in terms of its size and your needs for consulting. Rates are determined based on a variety of factors. Some organizations are extremely small and have limited budgets, and, some organizations are very large with hundreds of employees with greater financial resources. ACG has a sliding fee scale to accommodate all organizations based on its ability to pay. During the initial needs assessment of your organization, we will provide you with an estimate of the expense for our consulting work. The goal of ACG is to ensure all organizations receive the best consultation resulting in a three-year accreditation no matter what their ability to pay.

CARF distinguishes itself from other accreditating bodies in three different ways. First, CARF employs an on-balanced approach. Most other accreditating bodies only point out what an organization is doing wrong. CARF will also point out the strengths of organizations to reinforce what is going well. Secondly, CARF employs a consultative approach. What this means is that the surveyors will give organizations some ideas on how they might solve problems and issues identified during the survey process. Lastly, CARF’s standards are comprehensive and include the administrative operations. This requirement helps organizations improve stability and have a vision for the future.

The consultants will assist you in getting ready. However, a key concept within CARF is meeting the intent of the standards. Some consulting groups will do all the work, but if the organization does not fully implement the various systems and processes called for within the standards it likely will result in recommendations during the survey. Therefore, our consultants will assist you expeditiously setting up systems and processes which are streamlined and meet the standards. Not all standards are equal. Our consultants will assist you in which are the more important standards and some easy ways to meet them.

ACG will give you choice of consultants. We will seek to match our expertise with your organization’s size, services and unique needs. We encourage you to interview the recommended consultants to ensure you are comfortable with his/her background, expertise and style of communicating. All of our consultants are active CARF surveyors, most have done more than 100 CARF surveys.

Our consultants will assist you throughout the survey process. We will help you with your application, including which programs need to be accreditated, coordinating with the CARF resource specialist, being available during the survey, and assist with writing plans of correction. We are here to help you have a successful survey process.

Confidentiality will be maintained throughout the consulting process. All records and unique processes will be kept private. It is important to create a trusting and working relationship while consulting.

One of the best ways to prepare for a CARF survey is have a mock survey. Since all of ACG’s consultants are currently active CARF surveyors, we all are very knowledgeable of the process and typical questions that might be asked during the survey. We also are knowledgeable of the most common standards that are cited during surveys. Many times, some staff members are nervous about what types of questions might be asked of him/her. A mock survey is an excellent way to prepare for those situations and come to an understanding of how to organize your records to best assist the surveyors.