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Monday,
July 26, 2004
Earlier this month, Middletown Regional Hospital, followed closely by St. Luke's Hospital in Maumee, became the first two Ohio hospitals certified compliant with the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems Requirements. In addition, Cleveland Clinic, Surgical Processing Department was also certified ISO 9000 compliant during the same period.
To be certified, the organizations demonstrated their quality management systems met all requirements of the ISO 9001:2000. ISO 9000 is an internationally recognized system of quality management with 40 areas of certification, including health care. Healthcare Specialists, an OHA Corporate Partner, certified these health care facilities for ISO. Visit www.ohanet.org/partners/ for more information about Healthcare Specialists. (Joe Ruggles, joer@ohanet.org)
Physical Therapy Bill Shouldn't Affect Hospitals
Some private physical therapy groups are using advertisements
touting a new law, which allows certain direct access to physical
therapists without a physician referral, in an effort to attract more
patients. However, the legislation, Senate Bill 35, is not expected to
significantly impact hospitals.
OHA monitored SB 35, but did not support or oppose the legislation. The law became effective May 3 and allows self-pay patients to see a physical therapist with a master’s or doctorate degree and two years experience without a physician referral. However, the bill does not provide for reimbursement from payers, including Medicaid, Medicare or private insurances. The bill’s safety provisions also require physical therapists to notify a patient’s physician if the therapist evaluates and treats a patient, along with additional notification to the physician if progress is not seen within 30 days of treatment. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking comments for a proposal announced last week to reimburse hospitals and other providers to the tune of $1 billion over four years for emergency health services provided to undocumented immigrants. Although the majority of the funding will be allocated to the six states with the most undocumented immigrants, Ohio would receive approximately $1 million a year based on its percentage of the total number of undocumented immigrants residing in all states.
The proposal stems from the Medicare Modernization Act, which earmarked $250 million a year for fiscal years 2005 through 2008 to help emergency care providers recoup a portion of their costs associated with providing such emergency services required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. CMS says it intends to use the proposed program to support all aspects of emergency treatment - including hospital, physician and ambulance services - that have been strained by providing uncompensated care to undocumented immigrants.
CMS plans to hold an Open Door Forum on the proposal Aug. 2 and will accept comments through Aug. 16. OHA is also investigating the proposal’s effects on patient accounting and the Hospital Care Assurance Program. The final implementation approach is expected to be released later this year. Go to www.cms.hhs.gov/providers/mma1011.pdf to view CMS’ proposed implementation approach. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org)
GAO Pushes Greater Oversight of JCAHO
The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
last week released a report that calls for giving the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) greater oversight authority over the
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' (JCAHO)
hospital accreditation process. The GAO report says JCAHO failed to spot
“serious deficiencies” at many of the hospitals it certified.
While JCAHO-accredited hospitals are generally deemed to be in compliance with Medicare participation requirements, the GAO found the JCAHO accreditation process failed in fiscal years 2000-2002 to identify some hospitals found by state agencies or validation surveys to have deficiencies in Medicare requirements.
In response to the report, available at www.gao.gov/new.items/d04850.pdf, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) introduced legislation that would give CMS oversight authority over JCAHO. Grassley said he would like to see the bill, available at www.house.gov/stark/news/108th/STARK_051.PDF, pass Congress this year. However, JCAHO said it strongly urges policymakers not to make decisions based on an “incomplete portrayal” of JCAHO's effectiveness in evaluating hospitals, but rather to rely upon the annual reports CMS prepares each year on its performance. JCAHO also questioned the GAO’s methods and use of statistics in the study and said accredited hospitals are found by state agencies to be in compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation 98 percent of the time. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)
Wednesday, July
28, 2004
Hospitals are one step closer to sharing information on medical errors without fear of legal action. The U.S. Senate last week passed patient safety legislation, S. 720, to create a voluntary error reporting system establishing legal and confidentiality protection for patient safety data shared for the purpose of improving care, and creating patient safety organizations like those advocated by the Institute of Medicine. The organizations could collect and analyze voluntarily reported data to help prevent future errors. S. 720 had been stalled since unanimously passing the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension's Committee last July. The legislation now moves to conference committee, where it will be reconciled with a similar House bill that passed in March of 2003. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)
JCAHO Sets 2005 Patient Safety Goals
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO) recently released its 2005 National Patient Safety
Goals for hospitals. The goals, effective Jan. 1, are available online
at
www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/npsg.htm. The
2005 goals include five of the 2004 goals as well as two new goals aimed
at improving medication safety and reducing the risk of patient falls.
Among the new requirements, accredited organizations must ensure
critical test results are communicated promptly, and develop a process
for identifying a complete list of a patient’s current medications upon
admission and a process for communicating the list to the patient’s next
provider. (Rosalie Weakland,
rosaliew@ohanet.org)
Thursday,
July 29, 2004
The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) recently released its draft rules governing general radiation protection and medical uses of radioactive materials for comment and review. The draft rules include changes to skin dose limits and the allowable radiation dose for visitors of nuclear medicine patients.
The medical use rules generally follow federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules and address issuance of specific licenses, recite survey requirements, and provide for radiation safety of workers, the public, patients and human research subjects.
Comments should be forwarded to ODH’s Bureau of Radiation Protection at bradiation@odh.ohio.gov by Aug. 22. A committee of the Radiation Advisory Council will review comments and then propose the final rules for adoption by the Public Health Council. For more information, go to www.odh.state.oh.us/Rules/rulesdraft.html and review Chapter 3701:1-58: Medical Use of Radioactive Material. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)
Crestline Hospital to Close
MedCentral Health System last week announced its plans to close
Crestline Hospital by the end of September, citing financial
troubles. The hospital noted the changing complexity and cost of
providing hospital care over the years as a primary cause of the
hospital’s financial struggles. The hospital employs about 100 full- and
part-time individuals, the majority of whom are expected to be offered
positions within MedCentral. Crestline, designated as a critical access
hospital in 2003, is the only Ohio hospital to close so far this year. A
complete list of hospital closures since 1980 is available at
www.ohanet.org/media/closures.htm.
Friday,
July 30, 2004
In response to legislation introduced by an Ohio Congresswoman, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a demonstration project to make oral cancer medicines and medications for other diseases immediately available to seniors. The initiative, based on legislation previously introduced by Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) during the last two Congressional sessions, will cover specific medications for eligible Medicare beneficiaries before Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit begins in 2006.
Up to 50,000 people will be eligible for the demonstration project, under which Medicare will pay for certain drugs and biologicals that can be taken at home to replace those traditionally covered under Medicare Part B when administered at a doctor’s office, saving patients between 75 and 90 percent on specified prescriptions. To be eligible, a beneficiary must be enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B, not have comprehensive drug coverage through other sources, and use Medicare as a primary payer.
Applications must be submitted by Sept. 30, 2004, for coverage beginning Oct. 1, 2004, and ending Dec. 31, 2005. Applications received by Aug. 16, 2004, will be part of the early selection process, in which coverage begins Sept. 1, 2004. Patients interested in participating can download an application form and more information from the CMS Web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/researchers/demos/drugcoveragedemo.asp. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)
Initiative Working to Insure Kids
Hospitals are invited to join in this year’s national Covering Kids &
Families Back-to-School Campaign, which kicks off Aug. 3 in
Washington D.C. During August and September, Covering Kids & Families
coalitions from coast to coast host more than 1,000 outreach and
enrollment events to inform families about low-cost and free health care
coverage programs for children. At least 4 million of the 7.8 million
uninsured children in the nation are eligible for low-cost or free
health care coverage, according to the campaign.
Visit http://coveringkidsandfamilies.org/communications/bts/ to access a participation form and planning materials. The four-year, $55 million initiative is led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.