Monday, August 13, 2001
Workforce Work Group Holds Inaugural Meeting
A new OHA work group established to address the issue of hospital workforce shortages met for the first time Aug. 10. The group, comprised of leaders in Ohio’s hospitals, including executives, nurses, public relations experts, human resource administrators, as well as staff of allied associations and others, has been brought together to help support one of OHA’s main objectives for the next few years: to help member hospitals attract and retain talented and dedicated employees and medical staff. Some tasks the Workforce Work Group may choose to engage in include developing characteristics and policies of hospitals that successfully attract and retain clinical and non-clinical labor, designing a model for a pilot project, examining data including turnover as a measure of hospitals’ ability to retain staff, and increasing the numbers of those entering medical, nursing and allied health careers. The next meeting of the work group is scheduled for October. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

OHA Home Page Gets a Makeover
The OHA Web page has a new look! As the first step in a redesign of the OHA Web site, the home page has been given a makeover. The new page provides daily news updates and easier access to current happenings and hot issues. Health e-News Plus will be posted to the site each day and an archive has been created for past issues. We invite you to keep checking back, not only for your news updates, but to see the progress on the design. Over the next few months the new look will be rolled out to the rest of the pages and additional sections are planned. Our new home page is located at the same address you have been using all along, http://www.ohanet.org. (Michele Egan, michelee@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

For your daily health care news digest, go to the Hannah News Service's StateHealthClips.com.

Project attempts to help women at risk protect selves
Akron Beacon Journal
Monday, August 13, 2001

Labor-backed bill counters Hagan proposal
Alliance Review
Saturday, August 11, 2001

Prospects growing for RVHS facility
Ironton Tribune
Sunday, August 12, 2001

Tuesday, August 14, 2001
CMS Provides Clarification on When EMTALA Applies
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration, has released several questions and answers regarding implementation of EMTALA, the so-called federal "anti-dumping" statute, as applied to provider-based departments of hospitals.

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

For your daily health care news digest, go to the Hannah News Service's StateHealthClips.com.

ER: busier world
Akron Beacon Journal
Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Health Alliance donates $100K to NKU nursing school
Cincinnati Business Courier
Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Hoxworth declares blood emergency
Cincinnati Enquirer
Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Wednesday, August 15, 2001
Foundation Receives Applications for Tobacco Settlement Funds
Let the grant reviews begin! The OHA Foundation for Healthy Communities received a total of 64 applications for funds from the national tobacco settlement. This year, $678,000 is available for programs benefiting uninsured pregnant women and children and pulmonary rehabilitation. The total funding requested by grant applicants is more than $2 million, with about $1.5 million requested for programs for pregnant women and children and about $600,000 requested for pulmonary rehab. The Foundation is beginning the review process and expects to make grant awards in October. Twenty-four hospital staff or affiliated representatives volunteered to assist with the initial screening of the grant proposals.

Meanwhile, the deadline for grant applications under the regular autumn Foundation cycle was Aug. 15. The focus of this funding cycle is on care for the elderly and care at the end of life. Funds under this grant cycle are also expected to be awarded in October. (Lynne Ayres, lynnea@ohanet.org)

Tobacco Prevention Discusses Grant Eligibility Regarding Past Associations With Tobacco Companies
By September, Ohio’s Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation (TUPC), created under the national tobacco settlement, expects to have a list of options for determining the eligibility of grant applicants with past associations with tobacco companies.

TUPC discussions of late are heavily focused on eligibility as it relates to an applicant having received funding from a tobacco company or a subsidiary within the past five years. This does not include organizations that purchase products from subsidiaries of tobacco companies. Numerous community and minority organizations are objecting to the prohibitive language. Their concern is the restriction conflicts with TUPC’s mission of reducing tobacco use and might penalize organizations that have the capacity to reach targeted audiences and save lives in certain geographic locations where other programs do not exist or have outreach. The TUPC board designated a committee to draft options for review at the September meeting.

Also by September, the Foundation expects to have in place a new executive director. TUPC is in the final stages of selecting an executive director. Currently, the foundation is being led by a Board of Trustees chaired by William Wilkins, Chief Executive Officer of OhioHealth. (Lynne Ayres, lynnea@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

For your daily health care news digest, go to the Hannah News Service's StateHealthClips.com.

Medical center grows
Akron Beacon Journal
Wednesday, August 15, 2001

Mother arrested after disturbance at area hospital
Warren Tribune-Chronicle
Wednesday, August 15, 2001

Cold pills 'a poor man's Ecstasy'
Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, August 15, 2001

Thursday, August 16, 2001
HHS Announces Medicaid Patient Protection Initiative
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today plans to revise regulations made in the waning hours of the Clinton administration that provide Medicaid patients with new protections in dealing with their HMOs. The protections are similar to those in legislation that applies to patients with private health insurance and is currently being debated in Congress. They include the right to independent reviews of coverage decisions. The Clinton rules were scheduled to take effect this spring but have been delayed twice already. The revised rules do not change the benefits but grants states flexibility in administering and enforcing the rules. The rules are expected to be published in the Federal Register Aug. 20 and will likely go into effect early next year. For more information, see the HHS news release at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20010816.html. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

Thompson Proposal Gives States Flexibility to Expand Medicaid Coverage to Uninsured
An initiative announced earlier this month by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson is intended to help states expand access to health care coverage for low-income individuals through Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability Initiative would allow states to trim some optional benefits and use the savings to expand coverage to the uninsured. As part of the new plan, an electronic application will make it quicker and easier for states to propose and implement new approaches. The application will be available online at http://www.hcfa.gov/medicaid. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

For your daily health care news digest, go to the Hannah News Service's StateHealthClips.com.

Bedford officials spar over costs of health coverage
Toledo Blade
Thursday, August 16, 2001

OPINION
Wrong cures prescribed for nation’s nurses
Canton Repository
Thursday, August 16, 2001

OPINION
Medical numbers
Akron Beacon Journal
Thursday, August 16, 2001

Friday, August 17, 2001
AHA to CMS: Court Decision to Have Adverse Effects on Peer Review
The American Hospital Association (AHA) in a letter this week to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expressed concern regarding a U.S. District Court ruling ordering disclosure of the results of peer review organization (PRO) investigations into beneficiary complaints. AHA told CMS “the immediate release of the information covered by the court’s order will irreparably harm the PRO process by undermining any confidentiality assurances that physicians who participate in the process may have relied on.” 

In the lawsuit filed by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the court ordered CMS to send a letter within 20 days informing PROs that they are required to disclose results of the investigations to beneficiary complainants. According to AHA, CMS will use the letter to support its argument for a stay of the court order pending appeal.

The legal arguments of the case center around the definition of “final disposition” of beneficiaries’ complaints as outlined in statute. Public Citizen argued that final disposition should include what the PRO finds out about the subject of a complaint. HHS and CMS argued that final disposition implies that the complainant should be told only that the investigation was held, without providing substance of the disposition. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

For your daily health care news digest, go to the Hannah News Service's StateHealthClips.com.

Deal ends city clinic eviction threat
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Friday, August 17, 2001
MetroHealth Medical Center will continue to see patients at three municipal clinics after an agreement was reached late yesterday afternoon.

One final gift for hospital
Akron Beacon Journal
Friday, August 17, 2001
The carillon bells that once called people to worship have been silent for years. The domed sanctuary of rich, dark wood witnessed its last sermon almost a decade ago. The stained-glass windows have been replaced with plywood.

Judge to keep Clinic trial open, but curbs display of evidence
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Friday, August 17, 2001 Akron - A federal judge has decided not to bar the public and reporters from the trial of a Japanese scientist accused of helping to steal research materials from the Cleveland Clinic.