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Monday, January
23, 2006 C. diff is an opportunistic infection found in patients who are either immune suppressed or on multiple antibiotics. ODH's new reporting standard responds to a new, aggressive strain of C. diff. Weekly reports will be issued by ODH every Monday afternoon. OHA will obtain the reports each week to track hospital C. diff rates and will keep hospitals notified of developments on this issue. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)
State, Federal
Funds Support Health Care Jobs
Putting to work a portion of the $700,000 in federal funds recently allotted to strengthening the Ohio health care workforce, the Nursing Institute of West Central Ohio this week released the results of a survey indicating that recruitment, retention, educational enhancement and development of nurses are the essential next steps toward ensuring an adequate nursing workforce in the 14 Ohio counties represented by the institute. The survey will help the area establish a local application of a national supply and demand model developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 BWC Loses Legal Battle, Continues Targeting Hospital Payments On the heels of a Franklin County Common Pleas Court ruling that it did not follow required legal processes before implementing a $50-million cut in payments for hospital care to injured workers last October, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) is now planning additional reductions to hospital payments as part of a plan to generate $536 million toward its bottom line. To reach this total, BWC announced it would seek legislation that would permit it to establish fees paid to hospitals, doctors and pharmacies without administrative rules and authorize it to negotiate provider reimbursement rates without public scrutiny.
OHA and co-plaintiff, Genesis HealthCare System, Zanesville, sued BWC in September after the state enacted $50 million in cuts to hospital payments without following required procedure. The suit aimed to ensure BWC would follow the prescribed process and allow for sufficient input from all affected parties as it begins working on a long-term plan for medical care to injured workers in 2007 and beyond. The court’s ruling also allowed hospitals to formally make a case that the rate reduction was bad public policy and put care to injured workers at risk. Despite this suit, and while appealing the judge's ruling, BWC has now released a strategic plan that includes no input from the hospital community and includes significant additional cuts to hospital payments. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org)
CMS Proposes LTACH Payment Cuts
The Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week proposed Medicare
payment cuts for Long Term Care Hospitals (LTACH) in rate year
2007, beginning July 1, 2006. The rule would freeze the LTACH
standard payment at $38,086.04 and does not include a market
basket update. It also would revise the payment formula for
short-stay cases by establishing the short-term acute hospital
rate as one of four payment alternatives, a provision CMS
estimates would cut payments by 11.4 percent. Other provisions
would increase the outlier threshold from $10,501 to $18,489 and
phase out the hospital-within-hospital exemption for surgical
cases referred by the host hospital. CMS projects the net impact
would be an 11.1 percent drop from 2006 payment levels. View the
proposed rule at
www.cms.hhs.gov/LongTermCareHospitalPPS/Downloads/cms-1485-p.pdf.
(Jonathan Archey,
jonathana@ohanet.org)
CDC Warns of Flu-Resistant Antivirals The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised clinicians not to prescribe two commonly-used antiviral medications (amantadine and rimandatine) to treat or prevent flu this season as most flu viruses currently circulating are resistant to the drugs. CDC recommends prescribing Tamiflu (oseltamivir) or Relenza (zanamivir), antivirals that remain effective in combating this season’s flu viruses, and it will continue testing the viruses for resistance to antivirals and updating recommendations as needed.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developed new informational resources to help answer questions on pandemic and avian flu. These resources, which can be copied and redistributed, and other updates on the flu in Ohio are available at www.ohanet.org/flu/. (Carol Jacobson, carolj@ohanet.org)
Ohio Safety Congress & Expo on the Horizon The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is gearing up for the 2006 Ohio Safety Congress & Expo March 28-30 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, the second-largest occupational health and safety event in the U.S. Celebrating its 76 year anniversary, the safety congress brings together occupational and safety health associates and provides a forum for innovative workplace safety initiatives. This year’s speakers will include Randy Snow, recounting the devastating workplace incident that forever changed his life, and Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, presenting strategies on increasing production among employees from different generations.
The expo offers more than 150 hours of education sessions as well as tools and tips from over 200 exhibitors. For more information and registration, visit www.ohiobwc.com or call 1.800.OHIOBWC.
Thursday,
January 26, 2006 Legislation expanding the scope of practice of physicians’ assistants (PAs) is on its way to Gov. Bob Taft for his signature. Senate Bill 154, sponsored by Sen. Lynn Wachtmann (R -Napoleon), passed the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 95-0. The bill would grant PAs physician-delegated authority to prescribe a limited number of prescription drugs, making Ohio the second to last state in the nation to allow for this authority. PAs would also be able to see new patients and existing patients with new conditions, both of which are currently forbidden by state law. PAs wanting to take advantage of the expanded responsibilities would need to obtain a master’s degree beginning in 2008. OHA supports the bill. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org) Ohio’s Best Rx Celebrates First Anniversary Ohio’s Best Rx offers discounts on nearly all brand and generic medications and 2,300 pharmacies accept the Best Rx card—at least one participating pharmacy in each Ohio county. As the program moves forward, it seeks to increase participation. The state legislature is currently considering amendments such as increasing the income limits for applicants under 60 years of age to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, and adding online and telephone enrollment options. Hospitals are encouraged to display brochures in patient account offices, waiting areas, emergency rooms and anywhere uninsured Ohioans can be reached. Request brochures with applications for the program in both English and Spanish by contacting Kelley Harris, outreach coordinator, at 614.466.7698 or harrik02@odjfs.state.oh.us. More information is available at www.ohiobestrx.org and by calling 1.866.9BESTRX.
Hospitals’ Heartbeat
Deborah Meesig,
M.D.
A look inside
Deborah’s nomination –
At its latest meeting, the OHA Board of Trustees voted to support the Ohio Patient Safety Institute (OPSI) as the designated Patient Safety Organization for the state of Ohio. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has to approve each designated PSO to become a medical error reporting system. The Board also voted to include previously-Board-adopted statements outlining standards for OHA-member hospitals’ tax-exemption policies with the statewide, hospital-specific community benefit report to be released publicly later this year. OHA staff provided the Board updates on two OHA lawsuits. A lawsuit filed in 1999 against the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and Ohio Department of Insurance for failure to oversee the financial solvency of Ohio’s Medicaid managed care program is still working its way through the legal system. Certification for the lawsuit to be heard as a class action suit was upheld in December 2005 by the Court of Appeals. The state has until mid-February to petition the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of that decision. In a separate lawsuit, OHA sued the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) in September to challenge a $50 million cut in reimbursement for hospital care to injured workers. In December, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Charles Schneider ruled in hospitals’ favor, agreeing that BWC was required to follow the state’s public rule-making processes, which it had not in the latest rate cut. The Attorney General’s office, which represents BWC in this lawsuit, indicated it would appeal the decision to the 10th District Court of Appeals. The Board also received a preview of health care-related state and federal advocacy issues for 2006 and the 2006 Hospital Care Assurance Program, along with information about a new data tool, DataGen, to better analyze hospital data. (Jim Castle, jimc@ohanet.org) Supreme Court Justice Speaks to Hospital Risk Managers Ohio Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell spoke to the Ohio Society for Healthcare Risk Managers at its Winter Conference last Friday on challenges facing the Supreme Court of Ohio. O’Donnell explained to more than 100 risk managers, attorneys, physicians and insurance company representatives that by improperly acting as a legislative body, the court created unfavorable perceptions through some of the its previous rulings. He noted that the role of the court is to interpret the law, with the legislature holding the responsibility to make law and the executive branch to enforce it. Expressing discomfort with the way judges are elected in Ohio, O’Donnell questioned the need to raise substantial money and heavily campaign. He also noted that supreme court members should put personal agendas aside when they don their robes and put first their sacred obligation to uphold the Constitution. Improvements are also in the works, and according to O’Donnell, the court is making a conscious effort to improve public perception of professions in the Ohio judiciary and legal systems through efforts such as a mentoring program for new attorneys. Hospitals’ Heartbeat A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Gretchen Homerick,
RN
A look inside
Gretchen’s nomination –
© 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
January 03, 2008. |
