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Bipartisan Bill Would Increase Medicaid Reimbursement Ohio Congressmen Bob Ney (R-OH) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) this week introduced the Disproportionate Share Hospital Assistance Act of 2005 to provide an annual cost-of-living adjustment in the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital allotments for all U.S. states. Administered in Ohio under the Hospital Care Assurance Program (HCAP), federal Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) funding helps hospitals care for a growing population of uninsured and low-income patients. The legislation will add an automatic cost of living adjustment to the Medicaid DSH program starting in 2007, to help compensate for reimbursement rates that would otherwise be held at a frozen level until approximately 2010. “It is important that all Americans, regardless of their economic status, get good health care,” Ney said. “However, with the rising costs of health care the funding assistance hospitals currently receive is not enough.”
If enacted, Ney's
bill would add an estimated $15 million to Ohio's HCAP in FY 2007
alone. A key federal advocacy priority for the association, OHA
worked closely with Congressman Ney and the Texas Hospital
Association to develop and introduce the legislation. Hospital
advocates and the bill's sponsors will work in 2006 toward enactment
of the measure. For more information on federal advocacy and issues
impacting hospitals, visit
www.ohanet.org/advocacy/federal/default.htm. (Jonathan Archey,
jonathana@ohanet.org)
JCAHO Offers Field Review on Changes to Human Resources Standards The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO) seeks hospital input on proposed revisions to the Management of Human Resources chapter of the several accreditation manuals until Jan. 13. These manuals include: ambulatory care, behavioral health care, critical access hospital, home care, hospitals, laboratories, long-term care and office-based surgery.
The proposed changes are the result of JCAHO’s periodic review on standards. They reflect information received from accreditation survey data and input from accredited organizations, surveyors and various JCAHO advisory groups. The proposed standards revisions and a field review questionnaire are available at www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/field_reviews.htm. Contact Lisa Vidovic in the division of standards and survey methods at 630.792.5961 or lvidovic@jcaho.org with questions. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)
TUPCF Seeks Volunteers to Aid Smoking Cessation Programs The Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation is seeking applications from hospitals, as well as other non-profit or for-profit educational institutions, to establish a statewide infrastructure of Ohio Quits outreach workers. Approximately $250,000 is available for placement of a team of outreach workers representing regional areas of Ohio to:
Letters of Intent are due by 5 p.m. on Dec. 28 eastern standard time. The deadline for final proposals is 1 p.m. on Jan. 26. For additional information, view the official Request for Proposals online at www.standohio.org. For more information, contact Foundation for Healthy Communities Director Lynne Ayres at lynnea@ohanet.org.
Thursday, December 21, 2005 The Growing Cost to Hospitals, Patients of On-Call Physicians A car skids on an icy road and collides with a telephone pole, crushing the front of the vehicle and pinning the driver’s leg. An ambulance rushes the driver to the local emergency room, but will the necessary doctor or specialist be there? Historically, physicians provided on-call coverage as one way to retain privileges to practice at a hospital. But factors such as the volatile medical liability insurance environment and the growing uninsured population are changing this environment, leaving hospitals to face a growing challenge in securing adequate on-call coverage. In 2004, two-thirds of emergency department directors surveyed nationally reported inadequate on-call specialist coverage. OHA’s survey found that 70 percent of Ohio hospital CEOs consider this issue serious at their facilities, and 8 percent say the situation has reached a level that threatens the hospitals’ ability to maintain services. Difficulty finding specialty physicians willing to work on-call could raise health care costs and threaten all patients’ access to emergency care. At least one-third of hospitals nationally must now pay certain specialists for ED coverage or hire hospitalists—physician specialists in inpatient medicine—to cover gaps in on-call coverage. In Ohio, the cost to hospitals of maintaining on-call coverage ranges from less than $100,000 to $5 million annually. In addition, many Ohio hospitals are renovating or adding on to their EDs to accommodate the larger patient load and to retain their ability to provide prompt, full-service emergency care for insured patients as well as those without insurance. All of these costs translate into higher health care costs for all patients. To learn more, view the complete December Healthbeat article at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2005/1205.htm. (Mary Sterenberg, marys@ohanet.org)
Friday, December 23, 2005
Hospitals’ Heartbeat
Carol Bischof, RN,
BSN
A look inside
Carol’s nomination – Hospitals’ Heartbeat A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Cathy Warner,
RN Fairfield Medical Center, Lancaster Photo
A look inside
Cathy’s nomination –
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January 03, 2008. |
