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Monday, July 29, 2002
Hospital Reps Appointed to Workforce Board
Two hospital representatives have been appointed to the Governor’s Workforce Policy Board, which assists Gov. Bob Taft in building Ohio’s workforce development system. William E. Ruse, president emeritus of Blanchard Valley Health Association in Findlay, was appointed to the board for a term ending at the governor’s discretion. Reappointed for a term ending at the governor’s discretion was Linda L. Gentile, vice president for subsidiary companies at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron. These representatives join Debra Moore, senior vice president of human resources at Ohio Health in Columbus, who is currently on the board. OHA will continue to work with the board on health care workforce initiatives. More information about Ohio’s health care workforce shortage is available at www.ohanet.org/workforce/. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

Softball Tournament Time Again
Over 100 hospital softball teams are expected to turn out for the 29^thannual Ohio Hospital Association Softball Tournament, to be held at Berliner Park in Columbus. The men’s and women’s team tournaments are Aug. 24-25, with coed teams taking the field Sept. 14-15. For information on the men’s and women’s events, contact Roger Rill at 614.575.4867 or 614.761.2293. Contact Gary Ogle at 614.888.3138 for information about the coed event.

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(Editor’s note: StateHealthClips.com has gone to a subscription service. Please note that the link to access clips will change daily. If you visit www.statehealthclips.com, you will be required to enter a subscriber password. No password is required for the link published in HEALTH e-NEWS Plus.)

Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Prompt Payment Law Goes Into Effect
Thanks to new legislation, the Ohio Department of Insurance now has additional authority to ensure that medical insurers comply with Ohio’s prompt payment laws. Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Larry Mumper (R-Marion), became active last week.

The new law establishes a 30-day timeframe for processing and paying claims submitted by health care providers. It requires insurers to pay 18-percent interest to providers for claims not paid in a timely manner and gives the Department of Insurance authority to issue fines for late payment. The law also provides a system to aid insurers and providers with the exchange of information necessary to process a claim. Finally, it sets a two-year period after which paid claims are considered final and not subject to take-back practices. The new law is effective for claims submitted on or after July 24, 2002 and applies to state-regulated payers.

OHA is currently scheduling meetings to educate its members on the provisions of the new law. Stay tuned for the dates of these regional meetings. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org; Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

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(Editor’s note: The news clips are being password-protected on the OHA Web site. OHA members will be notified separately of the password. HEALTH e-NEWS Plus subscribers can still access news clips through the daily e-mail without a password.)

Wednesday, July 31, 2002
FutureThink Looks to the Future of Ohio Health Care
OHA and Ohio Organization for Nurse Executives (OONE) have collaborated to form FutureThink, an effort to design the future of clinical care. Using the input of more than 300 nurse executives, nurse educators, staff nurses, administrators, CEOs and consumers who attended one of 12 focus groups across the state of Ohio, FutureThink will develop creative ways to provide clinical delivery of care with long-term impact on the shrinking health care work force while maintaining the high quality of care Ohio is known for.

Yesterday, one representative from each regional focus group, OHA facilitators and other vital representatives met to share the more than 1,000 suggestions and ideas given by the focus groups and to discuss FutureThink’s vision for the future of Ohio health care. The 15 members of yesterday’s design team discussed the vision, which will be created directly from the information provided by the focus groups and will be the basis for the program’s strategic objectives. The design team will continue to finalize a specific plan of action for the organization.

If you would like to be added to the FutureThink mailing list, contact Stacey Walton at staceyw@ohanet.org. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

JCAHO Sets Patient Safety Goals
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) last week announced six National Patient Safety Goals for 2003 and 11 associated recommendations for improving the safety of patient care in health care organizations. The goals and recommendations, developed by JCAHO’s Sentinel Event Alert Advisory Group and approved earlier this month, will be subject to survey beginning Jan.1, 2003. The goals and subsequent recommendations focus on improved communication and accuracy as well as improved overall safety.

Health care organizations are permitted to implement alternative recommendations for achieving the goals if the advisory group determines them at least as effective as the published recommendations. Failure by an organization to implement all of the recommendations or acceptable alternatives will result in a single special Type I recommendation. Go to www.jcaho.org/news+room/news+release+archives/npsg.htm for more information. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)

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Thursday, August 1, 2002
Transfer Provision Expansion Halted
Hospitals averted losses of up to $1.9 billion when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) yesterday issued its final Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule. CMS did not expand the post-acute care transfer policy to additional diagnosis related groups, as was anticipated last week. The expansion would have cost hospitals between $900 million and $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2003 alone. The victory on this issue was due to the advocacy efforts of the nation’s hospitals, state hospital associations and the American Hospital Association.

However, an area of concern to hospitals in the final regulation is the increase of the outlier threshold to $33,650, which will make it more difficult for hospitals to qualify for payments to offset very high-cost cases. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org; Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

State and Nation Looking for Med Mal Solutions
Both state and federal government officials this week called for medical malpractice lawsuit reform while the U.S. Senate defeated an amendment that would have limited escalating medical liability jury punitive damage awards.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson released a policy report calling for federal malpractice legislation to curb “excessive litigation” as increasing medical malpractice insurance rates force doctors to close practices, limit patients, leave communities or avoid high-risk specialties, such as obstetrics and surgery. The report promotes capping jury awards at a reasonable amount, or $250,000.

Similarly, Gov. Bob Taft this week announced his strong support of state legislation that would limit jury awards of non-economic damages to $300,000. Senate Bill 281 is sponsored by Sen. David Goodman (R-Bexley).

HHS’ report also highlights the problems created for doctors and hospitals, particularly in states that have not reformed their legal systems, which includes Ohio. HHS’ report is available at http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/litrefm.pdf. The Ohio Supreme Court has three times before knocked down tort reform legislation to limit jury awards, which makes this year’s Supreme Court race critical. The Friends of Ohio Hospitals, OHA’s political action committee, has endorsed Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Lieutenant Governor Maureen O’Connor as the candidates who could return much-needed stability and balance to the court.

In the wake of Thompson’s call for malpractice reform, an amendment was added to a federal generic prescription drug bill to limit punitive damages. Despite what appears to be an increase in support for a federal solution to the malpractice issue, typically considered a state issue, the U.S. Senate defeated the amendment by a 57-42 vote. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org; Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

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Friday, August 2, 2002
Generic Drug Bill Passes Senate; FMAP Increased
Though the U.S. House and Senate have not yet agreed on legislation to provide a Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Senate this week did pass S. 812, a generic prescription drug bill that includes an amendment to increase the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP). The amendment would increase the FMAP by 1.35 percent for every state, requiring the federal government to fund a larger share of the Medicaid program. In turn, Ohio’s budget shortfall would decrease, making the state less likely to make cuts to the Medicaid program. The National Governors Association, particularly Gov. Bob Taft, worked for the increase, which is supported by OHA. Despite ultimately voting for the amendment, Ohio Sens. Mike Dewine and George Voinovich were among 24 senators who first voted to kill the FMAP provision.

Early last month, the U.S. House passed the Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2002, H.R. 4954, which would allot $14.3 million to hospitals over 10 years. The Senate has not passed similar legislation. Once Congress returns from recess in September, the House and Senate must reconcile their differences on this issue before legislation governing Medicare, provider payments, generic drugs and a prescription drug benefit can be enacted. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

Working Wonders
Hospitals’ best practices to recruit and retain the best in health care.

In a continuing quest to improve the working conditions and services offered to employees, Ohio hospitals continue to implement new programs. OHA would like to recognize these efforts and the positive impact they have on both employees and patients.

Several Greater Cincinnati-area hospitals have created a refresher course for registered nurses who have not worked in the profession for five years or more or those who want to update their skills. St. Elizabeth Medical Center, TriHealth (Good Samaritan and Bethesda North), Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Mercy Health Partners and Deaconess Hospital collaborated to establish the course, which will be offered Sept. 9 through Nov. 14. The deadline for registration is Aug. 23. For more information or to register, visit www.gchc.org or contact Emily Hanauer at 513.531.0200. More information about this program and other hospitals’ best practices is available on OHA’s Hospital Workforce Forum at http://www.ohanet.org/workforce/practices/. Send your hospital’s best practices to Jean Scholz at jeans@ohanet.org or call 614.221.7614 for more information.
Humility of Mary Health Partners, Youngstown, received a 2002 Best Practice Award from the American Society of Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) for successfully transforming its organizational culture. Presenting the awards at its 38th annual conference, ASHHRA also recognized Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services, Dayton, for its effective communications process.

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