OHA today testified that it will not oppose a new Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) payment plan to reimburse hospitals for inpatient services at Medicare plus 15 percent, but noted its concern about the complexity and cost of the proposal.

Testifying at a public hearing of BWC, OHA Senior Director of Health Policy Charles Cataline called on the bureau to meet its promise to implement a methodology that results in a true Medicare diagnosis related group (DRG) inpatient payment, which includes Medicare-approved add-ons. Cataline also outlined OHA’s recommendation to alter the plan from Medicare plus 15 percent to Medicare plus 25 percent to account for not only Medicare losses, but hospitals’ above average administrative expense to submit claims to BWC.

A copy of the testimony and an attachment defining a true Medicare DRG payment is available online at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/bwc_cuts.htm. View a related news release at www.ohanet.org/media/news_release/2006/bwc072406.htm. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org)
 

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Ohio Hospitals Have 19,000 Reasons to Support Smoking Cessation
Tobacco-related illness takes the lives of approximately 19,000 Ohioans each year—hospitals are in the business of saving lives and in this case it means doing more than just treating patients who come through their doors.

More than 60 Ohio hospitals have passed resolutions in support of the SmokeFreeOhio campaign, an effort to enact a statewide clean indoor air standard in public places. The campaign must collect 100,000 signatures from registered Ohio voters by the end of July to put the issue on the November ballot, placing the final decision in voter’s hands.

To create a healthier environment for patients, physicians, volunteers and visitors, many Ohio hospitals also choose to be positive examples in the community by implementing tobacco-free campuses. An OHA survey showed that 14 hospitals have tobacco-free policies in place and 50 percent of Ohio hospitals plan to go tobacco-free by 2007.

OHA’s Foundation for Healthy Communities received an OUTREACH grant from the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation (TUPCF) to help establish hospitals as Ohio Quit Sites.  Each participating hospital received $1,400 to integrate tobacco treatment services into clinical practices and refer all patients who express a readiness to quit to the Ohio Tobacco QUIT LINE, TUPCF’s statewide toll-free telephone counseling service.

Hospitals will never be able to save every life, but preventing 19,000 premature deaths would make a big dent. For more information view July’s edition of HealthBeat at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2006/0706.htm.  (Tiffany Himmelreich, tiffanyh@ohanet.org)
 

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Controversial Federal Transparency Provision Pulled

Thanks to the rapid lobbying efforts of hospital advocates, a controversial price disclosure provision was removed today from legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Added as a late amendment yesterday to H.R. 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006, the disclosure provision would have required all hospitals to report the prices they receive from private insurers for specific health care services.  In response, hundreds of hospital advocates contacted their U.S. representatives to oppose the provision, pointing to the more than 30 state-level laws that have already been developed in regard to hospital price disclosure. Ohio congresspersons Paul Gillmor (R-Tiffin), Steve LaTourette (R-Painesville), Deb Pryce (R-Columbus), Jean Schmidt (R-Cincinnati), and Pat Tiberi (R-Columbus), were among those who prevailed upon House leadership to pull the provision from the legislation. 

H.R. 4157, whose remaining provisions are supported by the American Hospital Association, now is expected to pass the U.S House this week and be sent to the U.S. Senate.  Final enactment of the measure is expected this autumn. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org).

FutureThink Launches Academy to Transform Hospital Leaders

FutureThink, an initiative created by OHA and the Ohio Organization of Nurse Executives, invites hospitals to participate in a new Transformational Leadership Academy to transform the way they deliver care to their communities. Starting this fall, hospitals can send teams of 10 leaders through the academy, which consists of four different workshops intended to help hospitals and health care providers improve patient care and develop leadership capacity. The academy will provide health care leaders with transformational tools through discussions on risk-taking and innovation, development of a strategic vision and workshops on communication effectiveness. 

To learn more, visit the newly renovated FutureThink Web site at www.FutureThink.org. Applications for the Transformational Leadership Academy are now available online at www.futurethink.org/academy/application.pdf. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

Thursday, July 27, 2006
Petro to Dramatically Revise Rules for Charitable Organizations

Acknowledging concerns voiced by OHA and other groups representing charitable organizations, Attorney General Jim Petro is dramatically revising his office's proposed rules for charitable organizations originally released June 29.  Petro has accepted the industry's suggestion for a nonprofit advisory council to examine best practices and will strip the "suggested policies," including the conflicts of interest, executive compensation, community benefit reporting and hospital billing and collection policies from the original draft of the rule. However, the draft rule likely will require hospitals to file their IRS Forms 990 with the attorney general and contain expanded reporting requirements on the attorney general’s annual report for charitable organizations.  Petro's staff plans to release the next draft of the rules with a press release tomorrow, Friday July 28.

OHA will continue to work with the OHA membership, other nonprofit groups and the attorney general’s office to ensure the rules do not hamper the operations and abilities of hospitals to fulfill their charitable and patient care missions.  The rules and resource materials are available on OHA's Web site at: www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/charitable.htm. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org)