FINANCE

Welcome to OHA's Finance Web site, where association members can find the latest news and updates on federal and state hospital and health system reimbursement polices and practices.

Subsections devoted to Medicare, Medicaid, BWC and other payers, HCAP, and hospital billing & collection can be accessed with drop-down icons at the top of each page.  Look also to each page for information on educational programming and membership activities, financial tools and OHA data products, and links to federal and state third-party payers and related organizations.

OHA welcomes member comments and suggestions on how to make the site more useful. Direct correspondence to any of the OHA associates listed on this page as contacts.

FINANCE NEWS

5/13/2008:: ANNOUNCEMENT: Membership Meeting on HCAP 2009

OHA and its Hospital Care Assurance Program (HCAP) Task Force will host a membership meeting to discuss issues relating to the 2009 HCAP on Wednesday, May 28 at Brookside Country Club in Columbus from 10 a.m. to noon. OHA has already received proposals to change the distribution for 2009, and attendees will be asked to both comment on these proposals as well as to offer their own suggestions for changes to next year’s HCAP model. Attendees will also be briefed on the status of the 2008 HCAP distribution.

Member hospital CEOs and CFOs are urged to attend the meeting, but only two individuals per hospital can attend due to space limitations.  Admission is free and a continental breakfast will be provided, so please fill out and return a registration form as soon as possible.  If no one from your hospital is able to attend the meeting, please forward any comments or suggestions via email to Ryan Biles and he will make sure the HCAP Task Force receives them.

5/05/2008:: Ohio hospitals provided more than $1.8 billion in community benefit in 2006, according to hospital-reported data collected by OHA. Staff shared the final numbers with the OHA Board of Trustees last week and will release a public report at a news conference as part of the OHA Annual Meeting in Columbus, Tuesday, June 10.

4/29/2008:: A detailed analysis by the American Hospital Association and another by Lawrence Goldberg with Grant Thornton on CMS's FFY 2009 inpatient hospital prospective payment system proposed rule are availablewere posted today.  CMS predicts an overall 3% update to payment rates with reductions to the increase to account for coding creep and additional reductions to hospitals that do not submit quality data, including a proposed 43 new quality measures. The rule also proposes to update the calculation of the IHPPS area wage index calculation and adds nine "hospital-acquired conditions." DRGs with the largest shift in weights. Comments are due June 13.

4/21/2008:: CMS' annual rulemaking season is is full swing with today's release of the FFY 2009 inpatient rehabilitation facility prospective payment system proposed rule. Comments are due June 20. The good news/bad news proposal freezes base IRF PPS payment rates, but backs off a bit on the requirement that a specific percentage of admissions come from a limited number of diagnoses. In 2009, 60% of admissions must include one of 13 qualifying conditions as primary or secondary diagnoses.  A fact sheet on the proposed 2009 IRF PPS rule is available and OHA will update this site with additional analyses as they become available.

4/18/2008:: OHA this week issued a Member Bulletin with a detailed analysis of the Healthcare Simplification Act (House Bill 125), which will take effect June 25 OHA supports the bill and will continue advocating for stronger most favored nation clause statutes.

4/07/2008:: The Internal Revenue Service released draft instructions and worksheets for Form 990, to be used by tax-exempt organizations. Schedule H and other schedules tax-exempt organizations must use are included. Comments are due June 1. The new form takes effect for the 2008 tax year, with the first returns to be filed in 2009. OHA is analyzing the draft instructions and will issue an overview soon. 

4/04/2008:: OHA requests second round of data in its Medicaid Managed Care Plan (MCP)  accounts receivable (A/R) survey. Started in March, and reflecting hospital-specific claims processing performance for the eight Ohio Medicaid MCPs back to the first of the year, OHA's simple, online questionnaire asks for data on days-in receivables, bill rejection rates, and claims processing abilities.  OHA will issue its first report to the membership in mid-May and will use the data in its work with the OHA/OAHP/ODJFS Medicaid Managed Care Task Force. The electronic survey and detailed directions are both available on the OHA Web site.

3/31/2008:: Today OHA sent a survey to hospital government relations contacts requesting data, by zip code, on the payroll taxes hospitals pay. OHA will use the data to provide state and federal elected officials with a quantifiable snapshot of the fiscal impact of hospital employees, which will enhance OHA’s and the Ohio hospital community’s advocacy efforts. OHA is requesting hospital-specific data on local, state and federal payroll taxes and contributions to Medicare and Social Security, by Ohio zip code. View memo to government relations contacts

3/18/2008:: The requirements of the Lobbying Expenditure Law requires OHA to notify its membership of the percentage of membership dues related to lobbying activities that would be non-deductible under the law. View OHA letter for more information.

Finance Archives