Monday, February 4, 2002
Ohio to Receive $34.4 Million for Emergency Preparedness
Ohio will receive $34.4 million for bioterrorism preparedness measures as part of an appropriations bill signed by President George W. Bush in January, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week. Ohio’s allocation is part of $1.1 billion in federal grants for states to develop bioterrorism preparedness plans, upgrade infectious disease surveillance and reporting, and improve hospitals’ abilities to handle large numbers of causalities in case of an attack. The funds will be made available through state health departments with 20 percent of the total allocation available for immediate expenditure to avoid preparedness delays. The remaining funds will be released once states have received HHS approval for their implementation plans, which must be submitted by April 15.

OHA will likely have a role in developing the preparedness plans with its involvement with the Medical and Public Health Work Group of Lt. Gov. Maureen O’Connor’s State of Ohio Security Task Force and the Senior Interagency Coordinating Group. More information is available online at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20020131b.html. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

Trauma law transforms patient care
Columbus Dispatch
Monday, February 04, 2002
A statewide system for saving people hurt in car accidents, shootings and other traumatic events is nine months away, but those toiling to improve emergency care say potentially lifesaving changes already are evident.

Medical helicopters- Are they used too much?
Sandusky Register
Monday, February 04, 2002
Medical helicopters have become a staple in the emergency care business, but critics say they are overused, sometimes picking up patients whose conditions do not warrant air transport.

‘New skin’ puts local hospital on cutting edge
Massillon Independent
Monday, February 04, 2002
Medical science has turned what formerly was discarded tissue into a valuable new tool in the skin repair process.  

Tuesday, February 5, 2002
State of the State Focuses on Security, Education
Gov. Bob Taft, in his state of the state address today, placed domestic security at the top of the state’s agenda. Taft thanked Lt. Gov. Maureen O’Connor for her leadership role in Ohio’s readiness efforts. O’Connor heads Ohio’s Security Task Force, which is charged with making sure the state is ready in the event of a terrorist attack. OHA continues to work closely with the task force and will work with the legislature on a bill expected this year outlining how various organizations around the state will work together in emergency situations. While the topics of security and education dominated the governor’s address, he also discussed the issue of high prescription drug prices for seniors and urged the Senate to pass legislation that has already passed the House calling for a drug discount program. Taft also discussed economic issues and investments in technology. Additional information on the address, as well as the full text of the speech, is available on the governor’s home page at www.state.oh.us/gov/. (Jeff Klingler, mailto:jeffk@ohanet.org)

OHA Exploring Funding to Invest in Hospital Workforce  
OHA yesterday explored funding opportunities to help Ohio hospitals address the health care workforce shortage in a meeting with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). OHA’s Workforce Workgroup will be working to design model programs for hospitals to move current entry-level hospital employees into health careers such as nursing.

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

Transplant program reactivated
Cincinnati Enquirer
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
University Hospital's heart transplant program was reactivated Monday after being closed for a year to renovate a care unit contaminated by fungus, the Health Alliance announced.

Cleveland ranks low on care of infants
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
With new hotels, stadiums and waterfront museums, the 1990s marked Cleveland's rebirth. But it was a lousy place to be born.

Clinic plans to start its own med school
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
The Cleveland Clinic is preparing to start an independent medical school and graduate studies program, apparently scrapping a proposal to work with Case Western Reserve University.  

Wednesday, February 6, 2002
No New Cuts in Budget Proposal, Pending Cuts Not Addressed
While President George W. Bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget proposal avoids new cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, it does not address pending cuts to hospitals.

Released Monday, the $2.13 trillion proposed budget does not address the pending reductions scheduled under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, including those scheduled for Medicaid disproportionate share hospital dollars, Medicare payments and indirect medical education (IME) funds. Medicaid DSH falloff alone will cost Ohio hospitals $405 million over the next five years. Medicare inpatient and outpatient reimbursement rates are set to drop 0.5 percent and 1 percent, respectively. The IME update rate will be reduced from 6.5 percent to 5.5 percent.

On the positive side, the proposal does not include new major reductions to the Medicaid or Medicare programs. Also, $518 million is allocated specifically to hospitals for disaster readiness nationwide. Bush also included tax credits for the uninsured, which will help hospitals cover the cost of caring for uninsured patients. Finally, the proposal increases spending for the National Health Service Corps’ by $44 million and increases funding to the Nurse Education Loan Repayment Program to a total of $15 million for 2003. 

Also included in the budget is $190 million for a prescription drug benefit for seniors. OHA is not opposed to a drug benefit, provided the benefit is not funded by Medicare Part A, which is traditionally devoted to hospitals.

OHA, OSMA Press State on Medicaid Managed Care Losses
In arguments Wednesday before the Ohio Supreme Court, OHA and the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) pursued the right to sue the state of Ohio on claims that its negligent oversight of Medicaid managed care providers several years ago caused hospitals and physicians to sustain millions of dollars in losses that should have been prevented. The suit was prompted by the failure of Personal Physician Care Inc., which the state had paid for services to Medicaid recipients but which failed to reimburse hospitals and physicians for providing that care.

The associations’ lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Insurance and the Ohio Department of Human Services (now the Department of Job and Family Services) was filed in 1999 and was dismissed in lower courts on legal grounds. Since the suit was filed, several additional Medicaid managed care companies became insolvent, increasing the losses to hospitals and physicians, which continued to provide medical care for the poor.

OHA and OSMA asked the high court to find, as it did in a previous successful OHA lawsuit in 1991, that the state assumes an obligation, when it chooses to participate in the Medicaid program, to ensure medical services providers are adequately reimbursed for services rendered to Medicaid patients. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

Bush plan would cost Ohio's hospitals, poor
Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Ohio would receive less federal money to help the poor pay heating bills and hospitals treat uninsured patients under President Bush's 2003 budget.

Male patient shot to death in hospital
Cincinnati Enquirer
Teusday, February 05, 2002
ANDERSON TWP. — The daughter of an elderly patient fatally shot in his room Tuesday night at Mercy Anderson Hospital has been charged with his murder.

Ohio to test infants for 5 additional disorders
Toledo Blade
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
Newborn babies in Ohio are being screened for five additional diseases before leaving the hospital, bringing the total number of diseases Ohio babies are screened for to 12.

Thursday, February 7, 2002
PA Medical Malpractice Insurer Liquidated
One of the country’s largest medical malpractice insurers has met with financial failure. Effective Feb. 1, PHICO Insurance Company has been ordered into liquidation by the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance. The Mechanicsburg, Penn.-based company’s primary business was writing medical malpractice insurance for health systems, hospitals and physicians. The states with the largest number of policyholders include Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Indiana and New Jersey.

The effect of the liquidation will be particularly felt in Pennsylvania where a majority of hospitals were insured by PHICO.  Under the terms of the liquidation order, all PHICO policies will terminate in March, and claims under the policies will be limited to caps in place under the various states' insurance guaranty funds. For example, the Ohio Insurance Guaranty Association will not pay more than $300,000 per claim under a PHICO policy.

In Aug. 2001 the company was placed into rehabilitation after filing a quarterly statement that reflected a surplus of only $6.8 million, down from its year-end 2000 surplus of more than $127 million. According to a statement by Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Diane Koken, a recently concluded analysis shows the company actually to have been $250 million in the red as of June 30, 2001. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

ER remodeling at MCO doubles treatment space
Toledo Blade
Thurday, February 07, 2002
Remodeling in the emergency department at Medical College of Ohio Hospitals has been completed, and MCO officials say the work doubled the space of the department and should ease crowding.

Who gets treated fastest after heart attack?
Alliance Review
Thurday, February 07, 2002
Even with national guidelines for use of clot-busting drugs and a massive campaign to make people aware of signs of a heart attack, a new study finds that senior citizens, women, blacks and diabetics still get to emergency rooms later than other heart-attack patients.
[2nd story on the hosting page]

Poison’s symptoms often confused with flu
Toledo Blade
Thurday, February 07, 2002
Carbon monoxide poisoning is like a tragic love story, a biological version of the body’s fatal attraction.

Friday, February 8, 2002
OHA System Approved by JCAHO for Core Measures
OHA’s new clinical data collection and analysis system has been approved by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) as a performance measurement system for core measures. The OHA CARE System, or Core Analysis Research Evolution, allows hospitals to easily track, analyze and improve the care they provide to patients, using Internet technology to speed the process.

The CARE System covers all four JCAHO-required core measure sets - heart attack, heart failure, community-acquired pneumonia and pregnancy-related conditions. Core measurement data is designed to help hospitals improve patient care quality. Hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission are required to select a system for core measures by June 30. OHA is offering the CARE System to Ohio hospitals to meet JCAHO reporting requirements as well as for hospitals’ own internal quality improvement processes.

House Companion Bill on Peer Review Introduced
A companion bill to Senate Bill 179, OHA-backed legislation that would improve peer review protection, has been introduced in the House. House Bill 488, sponsored by last week by Rep. James Aslanides (R-Coshocton), has been referred to the House Commerce and Labor Committee. SB 179, sponsored by Sen. Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon), modernizes Ohio’s peer review statute to reflect changes that have occurred in health care delivery since peer review was originally enacted in 1967. SB 179 is currently in the Senate health committee. Catherine Ballard of Bricker & Eckler last week testified in support of SB 179 on behalf of OHA.  (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

Hospitals' fiscal health is improving
Columbus Dispatch
Friday, February 08, 2002
Central Ohio's three major hospital chains are improving their bottom lines, but financial results remain below the national average.

Ohio could have to return $15.5 million in health insurance money
Akron Beacon Journal
Friday, February 08, 2002
CLEVELAND - Ohio's Healthy Start provides health care coverage to poor children, registering 180,000 children in the last three years. Soon it may have to return up to $15.5 million to the federal government.

Site for hospital location rejected
Cincinnati Enquirer
Friday, February 08, 2002
TURTLECREEK TOWNSHIP — The township has broken off negotiations to allow Middletown to annex a proposed hospital site here after two Warren County commissioners indicated they would not support a deal, Turtlecreek Trustee Dan George said Thursday.