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Monday, August 19, 2002
National
Blood Drive to Honor Sept. 11 Victims, Heroes
America’s Blood Centers (ABC) and Federated Department
Stores Inc. last week announced a national blood drive to seek pledges
for future blood donations in honor of the victims and heroes of last
Sept. 11. The national program, “A Gift From Your Heart,” ask
participants to pledge to donate a pint of blood at a location near them
when contacted to do so. Donor pledge cards will be available Sept. 6-15
in all Federated stores and online at www.fds.com/agiftfromyourheart/.
ABC’s members, which are community blood centers, provide blood
products and services to about half the nation’s hospitals and to Ohio
hospitals in Dayton, Cincinnati and Elyria. For more on ABC, visit www.americasblood.org/.
DAILY NEWS CLIPS
(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, August 20, 2002
CMS
Priority is Quality of Care
Medicare
needs to pay more attention to quality of care rather than continue to
pay all providers equally for like services, Tom Scully, administrator
of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told OHA members and
invited guests in a meeting today. However, changes to reward
exceptional quality or to extend coverage to the uninsured are difficult
to enact and could take years to implement, Scully said.
Scully
was in Columbus for a Health Care Advisory Committee meeting with U.S.
Rep David Hobson (R-Springfield). At OHA, Scully said frustrations at
changing Medicare and Medicaid on a national level could mean increased
flexibility for state programs that can help model new approaches for
improving health care quality. With Ohio as one of six demonstration
states, CMS has made progress on providing consumers with information to
help gauge the quality of nursing home care, Scully said, but he added
it will be more difficult to gather and provide similar information on
the quality of care provided in hospitals. (John Callender, johnc@ohanet.org)
Attorney
General Issues Nigerian Scam Warning
An
international scam known as the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud scam or the
4-1-9 fraud has now started to appeal to individuals and organizations
through references to the events of Sept. 11.
Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery yesterday warned Ohioans that mail, fax or e-mail messages requesting bank account information or promising money should be investigated. Organizations should not be persuaded by official-looking letterhead or titles and should not give out financial or personal information unless they initiate contact themselves. Consumers may forward the e-mails by contacting Attorney General Montgomery’s Constituent Services at www.ag.state.oh.us.
The Advance Fee Fraud, perpetrated from a number of countries, has existed for several years and has targeted several Ohio hospitals, which did not fall prey to the scam. Any letters, faxes or e-mails containing unsolicited requests for bank account information may be turned over to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service or the attorney general’s office or faxed to the U.S. Secret Service at 202.406.5031.
DAILY NEWS CLIPS
(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, August 21, 2002
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) has finalized the 2002 Hospital Care Assurance Program (HCAP) distribution model. The model is available on OHA’s Web site at www.ohanet.org/hcap/2002model.pdf. ODJFS recently decided to allow for two assessment/payment cycles for HCAP this year. Originally, the department had proposed a single cycle due to time constraints. OHA was able to convince the department having to pay their entire assessment at one time would have created cash-flow problems for some hospitals. The first assessment is due Aug. 27 and the second Sept. 11. The first payment will be made Sept. 6 with the second payment made Sept. 23. (Ryan Biles, ryanb@ohanet.org)
Facilities Must Report Possible Bioterrorist Agents
Under a new rule, all facilities that may possess a
select agent that could be used in a bioterrorist attack are required to
report the agent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
by Sept. 10. About 190,000 applicable facilities, including research,
clinical and diagnostic laboratories, should this week receive the
forms, which are also available online at www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/lrsat.htm
or by calling the CDC at 866.567.4232. Facilities that indicate they do
not possess agents listed on the form will be exempt from additional
registration and security requirements. Hospitals are asked to send a
copy of the completed forms to Carol Jacobson at OHA. (Carol Jacobson, carolj@ohanet.org)
DAILY NEWS CLIPS
(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.)
Thursday, August 22, 2002
Renaissance Health Plan of Cleveland was placed in rehabilitation by a Franklin County judge on Thursday after hopes of selling the troubled Medicaid managed care company fell through. The court order was granted at the request of the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) and was not contested by the health plan.
Renaissance
operated in Cuyahoga, Summit and Lorain counties and had 36,263 Medicaid
enrollees as of July 1. The company’s latest filing with ODI showed it
had liabilities of $22 million and assets of $8 million. It is not known
how much is owed to northeast Ohio hospitals, which provided care to
Renaissance’s enrollees, but there is concern that the figure is in
the millions of dollars.
ODI
announced Thursday it will seek liquidation of the company’s assets in
the next few weeks. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is
moving to transfer the plan’s enrollees into fee-for-service Medicaid
by Sept. 1. (Berna Bell, bernab@ohanet.org)
OHA Annual Medicare/Medicaid Policy Update Scheduled
Oct. 10 is
the date slated for OHA’s Annual Medicare and Medicaid policy and
reimbursement update. It will be presented, as in the past, by Larry
Oday, a partner in the Washington office of Vinson & Elkins and by
Lawrence Goldberg, director of national affairs for health care with
Deloitte & Touche. The popular annual program includes the most
current information on federal health care legislation and reimbursement
policy affecting Medicare, Medicaid and
the Hospital Care Assurance Program. The program will be held at
the Villa Milano in Columbus. Registration materials are this week being
mailed and will soon be available online at www.ohanet.org/education/education_programs.asp.
DAILY NEWS CLIPS
(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.)
Friday, August 23, 2002
OHA’s financial operations and the potential impact of specialty hospitals were the focus of attention for the OHA Board of Trustees during its August retreat and monthly meeting.
OHA member hospitals that pay 2003 dues by Jan. 30 will receive a 10-percent dues discount under recommendations the Board accepted from a special Financial Operations Committee, chaired by Tom Selden, secretary/treasurer of the Board and President and CEO of Parma Community Hospital. The committee’s recommendations will also guide the association’s budgeting process beginning in 2003.
At the committee’s urging, the Board and OHA staff will continue working to assure fee-for-service activities are self-sustaining and to develop a policy on reserves.
Board members expressed concern about the inherent conflict when physicians are in a position to diagnose, prescribe a course of treatment and refer patients to a facility in which they have a financial interest, such as a specialty hospital. The Board endorsed the position the American Hospital Association took in July on physician self-referral and directed OHA staff to develop a plan for similar state action, including a conflict-of-interest prohibition on physicians referring patients to inpatient facilities in which they have financial interest.
The Board also received a slate of candidates from the Nominating Committee. The list is available at www.ohanet.org/OHANews/2002/ohanews082302.htm. (Jim Castle, jimc@ohanet.org)
DAILY NEWS CLIPS
(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.)