Tuesday, March 19, 2002
House Leaders Mull Hospital Cuts to Fund Drug Benefit
House leaders are developing a prescription drug bill for Medicare recipients that would be funded in part by cuts in payments to hospitals for Medicare services, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA). Under this plan, inpatient prospective payment system payment updates would be limited to the market-basket rate minus 1.75 percentage point in the upcoming fiscal year. The current rate for fiscal year 2003 is market-basket minus .55.

AHA estimates the cuts would reduce hospitals' update payments by close to $1 billion in fiscal year 2003, which starts Oct. 1. The House is expected to bring the prescription drug bill to the floor sometime in late April or in May.

The developing legislation follows a letter sent last week by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels to House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) and health subcommittee chair Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT). The letter suggested that hospital Medicare payments could be reduced to help pay for increases in physician payments, and said HHS would not support provider payment changes unless they are "budget neutral in the short-and long-term." The letter is available at www.aha.org/ar/Advocacy/Content/FedAg020315Thompson.pdf.

Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Ohio Critical Access Hospitals Receive Grant
Nine Ohio hospitals are receiving a total of $234,000 from the Ohio Department of Health through a federal grant designed to assist communities and hospitals improve access to health care services and emergency medical services (EMS) in rural areas. Only hospitals designated as critical access hospitals are eligible to receive the grant money, which funds projects for either network development or EMS enhancement. This means that in addition to the cost-based reimbursement the hospitals receive because of their CAH designation, they are also receiving funding for their planning needs. The critical access hospitals in Ohio are Community Memorial Hospital in Hicksville, Doctors Hospital of Nelsonville, Greenfield Area Medical Center, Lodi Community Hospital, Oberlin Medical Center, Paulding County Hospital, Twin City Hospital of Dennison, UHHS Brown Memorial Hospital in Conneaut, and UHHS Hospital of Geneva. (David Hendershot, davidh@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

Thursday, March 21, 2002
OHA Peer Review Initiative Clears Senate
Legislation intended to modernize Ohio’s peer review statute, originally enacted in 1967, this week passed the Senate with bi-partisan support by a 24-8 vote. Senate Bill 179 would improve peer review protections for Ohio health care practitioners and recognizes changes in the health care delivery system. Introduced by Sen. Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon) on behalf of OHA and supported by the Ohio State Medical Association, SB 179 unanimously passed the Senate health committee earlier this week and is now headed to the House. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

EMS Board Adopts Trauma Rules
The Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Board this week unanimously adopted the pre-hospital trauma rules. The rules define significant trauma injuries for pre-hospital care providers, but the rules do not apply to hospitals. They will be heard at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review April 3. Hospital representatives on the EMS Board include Larry Willard from Hocking Valley Community Hospital in Logan and Charlene Mancuso from the MetroHealth System in Cleveland. While OHA supports the trauma rules, the association continues to be concerned that the issue of measuring over triage has not been addressed. OHA is holding a trauma seminar April 10 to help hospitals learn how the trauma legislation will affect them. Contact Bridget Gargan at OHA, 614/221-7614 or bridgetg@ohanet.org, for more information.

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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

Friday, March 22, 2002
Newborn Hearing Screening Bill Heads to Governor
Legislation to require hospitals to perform a mechanical screening for hearing impairments for every newborn unanimously passed the Senate this week and received House concurrence. The bill is expected to be signed by Gov. Bob Taft in the next few weeks.

OHA did not support the bill because it is an unfunded mandate, but OHA obtained numerous amendments to House Bill 150 to make it more palatable for hospitals. Under the changes, hospitals would have until June 2004 to comply with HB 150. The director of the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) could also grant a one-year extension to hospitals with severe workforce or funding problems. Hospitals already conducting mechanical tests would be permitted to stop performing duplicative paper tests effective June 2002.

Cincinnati Organization Awarded for Health Improvement Projects
The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati, a subsidiary of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, has been recognized by the American Hospital Association for the collaborative’s efforts to improve community health. The collaborative is a not-for-profit organization made up of hospitals, physicians, employers, consumers, insurers and public health agencies focused on the mission of stimulating continuous, significant, measurable improvement in community health.

The collaborative has named a recipient of AHA’s Carolyn Boone Lewis Living the Vision Award, which recognizes organizations or individuals living AHA’s vision of a society of healthy communities where all individuals reach their highest potential for health. Projects addressed by the collaborative include increased detection and early treatment of depression, increased flu vaccination, improvement in the incidence of low-birth-weight babies, and improving the treatment of adult diabetes.