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Monday,
March 14, 2005
CMS Approves
Statewide Bed Waiver for Flu
Following a
peak in flu activity in early March, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) late last week granted approval for Ohio
hospitals to use PPS-exempt beds to treat additional patients. Influenza
and related seasonal illness have increased the influx of patients, and
CMS’ waiver allows hospitals to use PPS-exempt rehabilitation,
psychiatric and hospital-based ambulatory surgical center beds. Critical
Access Hospitals can temporarily use more than 25 beds for inpatient
care during the emergency situation, but should not assume future
waivers will also apply.
Prior to the statewide waiver, about 20 hospitals had requested individual facility waivers directly from CMS. OHA had been working with the Ohio Department of Health and CMS since November on the waivers. To view the waiver letter, visit www.ohanet.org/flu/doc/CMS%20Waiver.pdf. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org; Carol Jacobson, carolj@ohanet.org)
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Following last week’s House budget resolution that could mean cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, the Senate Budget Committee late last week also marked up a proposed Federal Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposal that calls on the Senate Finance Committee to find Medicaid spending reductions totaling $15 billion over five years. In contrary to the House version, the Senate’s budget would not cut Medicare funding.
Still in the early stages of budget process, the Senate budget resolution now moves to the Senate floor, where Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) plans to introduce an amendment replacing language that would cut Medicaid funding with language from S. 338, a bill Smith introduced to create a Medicaid Commission to study the issue. OHA and the American Hospital Association are trying to garner support for the amendment from the Senate. The Senate Budget Committee already accepted an amendment expressing the “sense of the Senate,” which expresses opinion but carries no force of law, that reconciliation should not impose Medicaid reductions that would undermine the program’s viability or shift a disproportionate share of funding to state or local governments.
Once both versions are
passed and reconciled, the congressional committees of jurisdiction will
begin debating how to keep federal spending within the resolution’s
limits. Throughout the process, OHA will continue to lobby strongly
against cuts to both Medicare and Medicaid. (Jonathan Archey,
jonathana@ohanet.org)
Wednesday,
March 16, 2005
Energy Prices Reach Near-Record High
The nation’s energy market is currently running extremely high, with
natural gas prices reaching their second highest level ever and oil
prices reaching a record peak. Concerned about the burgeoning price of
energy, President George W. Bush today urged Congress to complete a
comprehensive energy plan.
The natural gas market tends to correlate to movement in the oil market, and oil may soon begin to fall as the result of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies’ (OPEC) announcement this morning that it will increase production approximately two barrels per day. Despite the short-term relief, high oil and gas prices are predicted through next winter and OHA’s gas vendor Stand Energy encourages hospitals to seek storage opportunities in the coming months, if the market drops, to protect against next winter’s potentially high prices and manage energy costs. Storage begins in April. For more information, view periodic updates by OHA’s energy consultants at www.ohanet.org/energy/. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)
Thursday,
March 17, 2005
The U.S. Senate passed by a vote of 52-48 an amendment to its budget resolution, replacing language that would cut Medicaid funding. The amendment, introduced by Gordon Smith (R-OR), replaces the cuts to Medicaid with language from S. 338, a bill Smith introduced to create a Medicaid Commission to study the issue. OHA and the American Hospital Association advocated in support of the amendment.
Once both the House and Senate versions of the budget resolution are passed and reconciled, the congressional committees of jurisdiction will begin debating how to keep federal spending within the resolution’s limits. Throughout the process, OHA will continue to advocate strongly against cuts to both Medicare and Medicaid. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)
House Panel Hears from BCMH Proponents
Over three dozen advocates of the Bureau for Children with Medical Handicaps (BCMH) testified before the Human Services Subcommittee of the House Finance Committee last week on the need to restore funding to the program. BCMH works to ensure children with special health care needs and their families obtain comprehensive care and services, and is generally a secondary payer to middle income families that have private health insurance but cannot afford the sometimes tens of thousands of dollars in health care expenses they must pay out of pocket.
Dr. Nick Baird, director of the Ohio Department of Health, kicked off the hearing with an overview of the department’s budget, and stated the department "has been faced with declining revenues and the growing demand and cost of treatment services." He noted particularly the impact of increased pharmaceutical costs. "If we do not find a long-term, sustainable financing solution for this program, we will continue to chip away at either the services or the number of families eligible for the program," he said.
The BCMH budget was $12 million in 1999, and is $6 million in the current state fiscal year, resulting in approximately 5,000 patients being removed from the program and foregoing preventive and therapeutic care because they cannot afford the deductible. The proposed budget reduced the program’s funding to $5 million.
OHA supports restoring funding to the BCMH program, and provided written comments to the subcommittee on the program and other public health initiatives funded by the department. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)
Friday,
March 18, 2005
Health care holds a top spot on the list of Ohio’s biggest industries—one of every 10 people you see at the grocery store, the movie theater or the bank works in health care. Ohio’s workforce and economy depend heavily on health care jobs, and health care employment will soon become even more crucial as the aging baby boomer population requires care. Recognizing the potential workforce crunch, hospitals statewide are preemptively planting long-term solutions, seeking out partners and innovative programs to expand the capacity of Ohio’s health care education and training programs and improve the ability of Ohioans to pursue careers in health care.
These efforts include:
- Collaborating with educational institutions to fund additional educators or lend clinical staff to teach students.
- Creating programs that allow current health care workers funding and flexible work environments to pursue advanced degrees and the education required to work in licensed care positions with high vacancy rate.
- Bringing students and those seeking second careers into hospitals for tours and other programs to encourage an interest in health care professions.
By acknowledging and combating upcoming workforce challenges now, hospitals are working to ensure a healthy future for all Ohioans—professionally, economically and personally. To learn more, read OHA’s March Healthbeat article at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2005/0305.htm.
OHA Center for Education to Offer HIPAA Security: Compliance Tool Kit
Phoenix Health Systems and HIMSS conducted the Winter 2005 U.S. Healthcare Industry HIPAA Compliance Survey from Jan. 4-20, 2005. Four hundred health care industry representatives (providers and payers) responded and the key findings include:
- Only 30 percent of Payers 18 percent of providers indicated they are currently compliant with HIPAA Security Regulations.
- Only 74 percent of providers and 80 percent of payers indicated they will be compliant on or before the deadline.
- Forty percent of providers and 26 percent of payers indicated their organizations had experienced at least one data security breach in the past six months.