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On the national front, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a Pandemic Planning Update, available at www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/pdf/panflu20060313.pdf, outlining the country’s priorities in the race against the pandemic virus, monitoring and surveillance planning, vaccine and antiviral information and the importance of communication and state and local preparedness. OHA is working with regional coordinators to identify a clinical staff member at each hospital to head pandemic preparedness efforts. The Ohio Department of Health released an operational plan related to pandemic, and hospitals will soon receive a complete packet of information on planning initiatives from OHA. For more information on the 2005-2006 flu season in Ohio, visit www.ohanet.org/flu/. (Carol Jacobson, carolj@ohanet.org; Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org) IRS Offers Guidance on Political Activity of Tax Exempt Organizations The Internal Revenue Services (IRS) recently released new guidance on its prohibition of political campaign activity for tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organizations. The IRS prohibits these organizations from participating in a campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for elective office, but allows issue advocacy, voter education, registration and get-out-the-vote drives. The new fact sheet, Election Year Activities and the Prohibition on Political Campaign Intervention for Section 501(c)(3) Organizations, helps educate tax-exempt organizations before the upcoming 2006 elections. The fact sheet provides examples of common activities and situations that occur in the context of a political campaign—some taken directly from IRS investigations.
As political
campaigns gain steam in preparation for Election Day this fall,
OHA encourages hospitals to consult legal counsel and review the
IRS fact sheet at
www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154712,00.html to help
guide political campaign activities. OHA issued a bulletin with
additional information, available to member hospitals at
www.ohanet.org/Bulletins/2006/06-002.htm. (Mary Gallagher,
maryg@ohanet.org)
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Advances in technology continue to make outpatient care an attractive option for more patients and procedures. Though outpatient care is less expensive and more convenient for patients, hospitals are penalized for adding outpatient services when their current reimbursement for this care does not even keep pace with inflation. OHA is seeking an amendment that would allocate $25 million per year to outpatient services to help bring reimbursement closer to hospitals’ cost of providing care. A second amendment addresses a new policy that requires hospitals to identify, bill, collect and follow up on Medicaid recipients’ potentially inappropriate use of an emergency department (ED)—tasks that may negatively impact wait times and care for all patients. The new policy obligates hospitals to charge Medicaid patients a $3 co-pay for inappropriate use of the ED, and does not allow facilities to forgive the co-pay amount. Revoking hospitals’ ability to waive co-pay charges requires a time-consuming, expensive and often fruitless pursuit on top of the time spent identifying and billing Medicaid patients who inappropriately use the ED. OHA’s amendment would give hospitals greater flexibility in enforcing the $3 co-pay. Learn more about these two amendments in OHA’s March Healthbeat article, available at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2006/0306.htm. (Mary Sterenberg, marys@ohanet.org) Ohio Hospital CEO Testifies Against GPO Legislation Mina Ubbing, president and CEO of Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster, testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust last week regarding hospital group purchasing organizations (GPOs). The subcommittee is investigating whether GPOs’ self regulation under the recently adopted Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative creates a level playing field for all vendors, or whether legislation should be considered. Some medical supply manufacturers have alleged that large GPOs prevent small vendors from entering the marketplace, and have called upon Congress to enact oversight measures. Ubbing explained that hospitals work with GPOs for only a percentage of their purchasing needs, and that individual vendors can and do work directly with hospitals. She also voiced concerns that legislation regulating GPOs would ultimately increase the costs to hospitals. The subcommittee is expected to continue exploring this issue. Ubbing’s testimony is available at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/federal/ubbing15march2006.pdf and a comment letter sent by OHA to the subcommittee's chair, Sen. Mike Dewine (R-OH), supporting the Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative and raising concerns about the unintended negative consequences of legislation regarding hospital GPOs is online at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/federal/resources/gpo_letter0306.pdf. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org) Wednesday, March 22, 2006 OHA Acts on Several State Bills OHA is currently following several pieces of state legislation, presenting the views of the hospital community and advocating for positive changes. OHA is working with Sen. David Goodman (R-Columbus) to amend Senate Bill 39, which would expand the state’s False Claims Act to allow a whistleblower to bring suit against an entity doing business with the state and receive partial awards from the suit. Recent changes to the legislation provide that these suits can only go after truly fraudulent activities, and individuals may not proceed with frivolous lawsuits. While OHA does not support the bill, these changes make its provisions more palatable to hospitals and will guard against overreaching use of the act such as hospitals experienced with the federal government in the late 1990s. OHA is also advocating to exempt hospitals from House Bill 522, sponsored by Rep. Jon Peterson (R-Delaware), which would require circulating nurses to be present during all surgical procedures in hospital operating rooms, ambulatory surgical facilities and physician offices .The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have standards in place for the use of circulating nurses. Proponents of the bill state there is a need for an advocate in the operating room for surgical patients who are under anesthesia and cannot speak for themselves. Thanks in part to OHA advocacy efforts, Senate Bill 7, sponsored by Sen. Gary Cates (R-West Chester), is on its way to the governor without the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s proposal that it be allowed to forego public rules to establish payment methodologies. OHA pointed out that other government payers such as Medicaid and Medicaid conduct many public hearings when changes are made to reimbursement systems, and successfully implement those changes that fall within their statutory authority. OHA advocated that permitting a state agency to forgo a level of oversight is a bad public policy decision. ( Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org, Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org) Hospitals’ Heartbeat A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Kim Schaeffer
A look inside
Kim’s nomination –
Thursday,
March 23, 2006 Through a new system being implemented by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), hospitals in the Columbus and Akron areas will soon report information on children from birth through five years of age diagnosed with birth defects. The Ohio Revised Code authorized ODH to develop and implement a statewide birth defects information system with mandated reporting by hospitals, physicians and freestanding birthing centers. The new system, Ohio Connections for Children with Special Needs, will collect information on children identified with birth defects and assist families in obtaining services for their children.
Hospitals in Franklin, Hocking, Ross and Summit Counties will participate in the first phase of implementation, beginning this spring. Hospital administrators in these counties should soon receive—or already have received—information from ODH describing the system and outlining reporting requirements. ODH staff will work with each facility to enable it to electronically report accurate and timely data using the hospital’s existing systems, but hospitals will receive no funding to support the additional reporting requirements. Learn more about the program and preliminary steps for implementation of the reporting system at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/resources/birth_reporting.pdf. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)
New Health Care Quality Information Now Online The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality launched a new interactive Web-based tool for states to use in measuring health care quality. The State Snapshots Web site is based on the 2005 National Healthcare Quality Report and the 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report, originally released Jan. 9. It provides dashboards of health care quality measures and offers customized information tables from each state’s perspective. State Snapshots 2005 is available online at www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov/qualityreport/2005/state/summary/intro.aspx. To view a news release with more information and links to the reports that provided data for State Snapshots, visit www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2006/stsnappr.htm.
Second-quarter
2005 data from hospitals participating in the Hospital Quality
Alliance are now available at
www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/. This site allows patients and
families to compare the performance of the nation’s acute care
hospitals on 20 quality measures for care provided to adult
patients since 2004 for heart attack, heart failure and
pneumonia. Later this year, the participants will also begin
collecting data on their patients’ perceptions of hospital care,
with reporting of results slated for late 2007. (Rosalie
Weakland,
rosaliew@ohanet.org)
State Auditor Betty Montgomery recently requested approval to hire a non-profit Westerville corporation to aggressively pursue Medicaid overpayments to health care providers. The auditor’s office is looking to contract with Permedion to conduct and identify possible overpayments that, based on past work with the Medicaid program, it estimates will generate millions of dollars. Twelve firms submitted proposals and Permedion was selected based on experience, qualifications, agreement with auditor requirements and other factors. The state budget included a provision giving the auditor independent authority to examine payments to Medicaid providers. Previously, such audits could be conducted only upon request of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org) A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Laura Gaietto
RN
A look inside
Laura’s nomination –
© 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
January 03, 2008. |
