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Monday, October 21, 2002
Hardin
Memorial Open Meetings Win Upheld
The 3rd District Court of Appeals in Lima has upheld the
decision that Hardin Memorial Hospital in Kenton does not have to open
its board meetings to the public. Issued last week, the decision
affirmed Common Pleas Judge Frederick Pepple’s April 1 ruling that
Hardin Memorial is a private, nonprofit corporation and not a public
body. The newspaper filed its appeal in May.
The original ruling in favor of the hospital was in response to a court action filed in March by Hardin County Publishing, publisher of the Kenton Times. It was consistent with the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling last year in a similar case that Parma Community General Hospital was not subject to Ohio's public records law. Columbus law firm Bricker & Eckler represented the hospitals in both cases. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@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.)
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Vaccine
Recommendations Await Final Decision
New
recommendations on the use of smallpox vaccine for health care employees
who respond to or care for patients with suspected or confirmed cases of
smallpox have been submitted and await further clarification. In June,
the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) revised its 2001
statement, recommending voluntary immunization for both people who work
with the virus and those who are in contact with patients suspected of
having the virus. If approved, approximately 100 doctors, nurses and
emergency room and intensive care staff would be inoculated at every
acute care hospital.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will make the final decision on whether ACIP’s suggestions become mandatory guidelines. It requested additional guidance from ACIP on eight points, including the types of health care workers that should require vaccination and care of the vaccination site, and ACIP made clarifications. CDC’s Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) will review the complete recommendations this week and they will then be forwarded on for final review.
OHA is working with the Ohio Department of Health to establish statewide guidelines should ACIP’s new recommendation be accepted. (Carol Jacobson, carolj@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.)
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Task Force Seeks to
Protect Medicaid Funding
Concerned that Medicaid will be a target of state
reductions in spending for the next biennium, OHA and the Ohio Children’s
Hospital Association (OCHA) established a task force to address possible
alternatives to cuts in Medicaid reimbursement for hospitals. The
Medicaid Task Force, established at the direction of the OHA Board,
involves major Medicaid providers representing a variety of hospitals
throughout the state.
Members of the task force are discussing the current financial and political environment surrounding Medicaid funding, including three cost-containment models and a proposal to extend Medicaid Managed Care to the aged, blind and disabled population currently under consideration by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). The task force members also agreed to actively assist OHA and OCHA with grassroots efforts to inform policymakers of the importance of investing in Ohio’s Medicaid providers.
In subsequent meetings throughout the next month, the task force will continue to develop a hospital community response to proposed Medicaid cost-containment strategies and extension proposals. (Berna Bell, bernab@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, October 24, 2002
Three
Ohio Medicare+Choice Plans Reduce Services
Three Ohio Medicare+Choice plans, HealthAssurance, Sterling Life
Insurance and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Ohio, will discontinue or
reduce their operations in Ohio for 2003. The three plans informed
26,984 consumers this month that their services would be discontinued,
and that they have until the end of the year to enroll in an alternate
plan. If no action is taken to secure a new Medicare+Choice plan,
terminated consumers will be automatically enrolled in original Medicare
as of Jan. 1, 2003.
Despite these reductions, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services continue to support Medicare+Choice plans. In an August meeting with OHA, Tom Scully, administrator for CMS, expressed CMS’ strong commitment to the success of the Medicare managed care program. Additional information is available from the Ohio Department of Insurance at www.ohioinsurance.gov or 1.800.686.1578, or from CMS at www.medicare.gov or 1.800.633.4227. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org)
Supreme Court Candidates Debate Next Week
The Ohio News Network (ONN) and the
League of Women Voters will present the first statewide televised Ohio
Supreme Court Forum with all four candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court.
The debate will be broadcast live from the Statehouse Tuesday, Oct. 29
at 8 p.m. on ONN. Elections for the Ohio Supreme Court are Nov. 5.
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, October 25, 2002
Hospitals Dip Into Red
as Medicare Payments Drop
In 2000, Ohio hospitals treated a higher volume of sicker
senior citizens for a lot less money than three years before. In looking
at the 16 most utilized Medicare diagnostic related groups (DRGs), OHA
found that between 1997 and 2000, median costs per case for services to
treat Medicare patients rose 19 percent while payments declined 16
percent with a net loss of $206 million in 2000. As this gap between
costs and payments widens, hospitals are forced to foot more and more of
the bill for each Medicare patient treated, especially since government
reimbursements failed to keep up with inflation. For more, see the
October OHA HealthBeat at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2002/healthbeat1002.htm.
Join OHA’s Pollution Prevention Efforts
OHA’s Environmental Leadership Council will host two
additional telephone briefings this year for assistance with EPA
regulatory compliance, waste stream management and volume reduction,
mercury elimination and pollution prevention. A briefing on Oct. 30 will
cover good practices and regulatory constraints in drain disposal of
liquid wastes and a Dec. 4 briefing will offer information on pollution
prevention strategies and compliance regarding pharmaceuticals and
chemotherapy wastes. Both briefings
will be offered from 11:30 to 12:30 EST. (Susan Zabo, susanz@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.)