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Monday, December 11, 2006
109^th Congress Ends With Win for Hospitals, Physicians
Before adjourning Saturday, the 109^th Congress passed legislation benefiting hospitals, physicians and other providers. House Resolution 6111, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, freezes Medicare physician reimbursements at their 2006 levels and postpones for one year a scheduled 5.1 percent reduction in such payments. Physicians who voluntarily participate in a quality reporting program are eligible to receive up to an additional 1.5 percent in incentive bonus payments.

H.R. 6111 also requires outpatient lab services for rural hospitals under 50 beds to be reimbursed at “reasonable costs,” and provides a one-year extension on an existing requirement that Medicare pay labs directly for physician pathology services provided to hospital patients. Encouraging continued quality reporting by providers, the bill reduces hospital and ambulatory centers’ outpatient reimbursements by 2 percent for those facilities that do not report certain quality data, beginning in 2009.

The bill also represents a win for hospital advocates who opposed the Bush administration’s plans for reducing the maximum Medicaid provider tax rate from the current 6 percent to 3 percent. Many states use these taxes to bolster Medicaid payments to providers. H.R. 6111 sets the new maximum state tax rate, applicable to pharmacies, nursing homes and hospitals, at 5.5 percent. But lawmakers supported the administration’s strong endorsement of health savings accounts by pledging $1 billion toward increasing the maximum allowable individual contribution to such health plans.

The president is expected to sign H.R. 6111 within the coming days. The large “catch-all” bill encapsulates many of the remaining loose ends Congress pledged to complete before year’s end, except for most of the government appropriations bills, which Congress delayed until February 2007. Find additional information on the H.R. 6111 at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.R.6111. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Hospitals on Lookout for Fake JCAHO Surveyors
Hospitals should be on the lookout for imposters claiming to be from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) following a suspicious incident in Connecticut. On Sept. 21, 2006, individuals posing as JCAHO surveyors were discovered in and disappeared from a Connecticut hospital. The recent incident mirrors incidents reported in hospitals across the county in February and March of 2005.

Although no specific, credible threat exists against the health care sector or hospitals, the possibility that hospitals may be targeted by terrorist organizations remains. While their intensions are unknown, the imposters could be conducting pre-operational surveillance in preparation of a criminal or terrorist operation. To ensure authenticity, hospitals should request JCAHO surveyors show their JCAHO identification badge upon arrival at the facility. Surveyors arriving unannounced should also have an official JCAHO letter explaining the visit. In addition, biographies and pictures of the surveyors assigned to conduct a hospital’s survey will be posted to the JCAHO secure extranet site the morning of an organization’s survey. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org; Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)

Hospitals’ Heartbeat
A 2006 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award

Bob Walsh, RN
Director, Emergency Services
Riverside Methodist Hospital
Columbus

A look inside Bob’s nomination –
For 25 years, Bob Walsh has devoted his life to emergency medicine, from working as a MedFlight nurse to designing and leading two of the region’s busiest emergency departments.

He is an exceptional leader who goes above and beyond to “improve the health of those we serve.” It is because of this commitment and passion that Riverside’s ED has remained diversion-free despite record-high volumes … he serves on a committee to ensure central Ohioans receive the healthcare they need regardless of ability to pay … and he travels across the country to provide medical care in hurricane-ravaged regions.

He views his job as “doing whatever it takes to get bedside staff what they need to serve our patients,” and he has successfully initiated hospital-wide, system-wide and community-wide change to make it happen.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006
JCAHO Accepting Comments on 2008 Patient Safety Goals
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations seeks input from health care providers on proposed goals and requirements for its 2008 National Patient Safety Goals. The draft goals would require organizations to improve recognition and response to changes in patient condition; reduce the risk of post-operative complications for patients with obstructive sleep apnea; prevent patient harm associated with health care worker fatigue; and prevent catheter misconnections. Potential requirements would mandate that organizations investigate and initiate planning for the use of technology to assist with patient identification and to reduce the chance of harm from anticoagulation therapy. View the rules at www.jointcommission.org/Standards/FieldReviews/default.htm, and submit comments by Jan. 26. For more information, contact Jennifer Hoppe, senior research associate with JCAHO, at 630.792.5936 or jhoppe@jcaho.org. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)

Thursday, December 14, 2006
BWC Announces January 1 Start of New Inpatient Payment Plan
At the OHA Finance Committee's December meeting, the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) announced it will start a new inpatient hospital payment system on Jan. 1, 2007, that is based on what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pays for Medicare. Starting with inpatient admissions Jan. 1 and after, BWC will pay Health Partnership Program bills at current Medicare rates, plus 15 percent, including all appropriate Medicare PPS payment add-ons. Non-acute-care admissions for rehabilitation, psychiatric, children’s, cancer and critical access hospitals and distinct-part units will continue to be paid at the current BWC inpatient rate based on 2004 Medicaid cost plus 12 percentage points with a ceiling at 70 percent of covered charges. OHA today received the final announcement. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org)

Ohio Ranked Mid-Range in Annual Health Report

Ohio moved up two ranks from 27^th in 2005 to 25^th in the 2006 edition of America’s Health Rankings™: A Call to Action for People and Their Communities. The report by United Health Foundation is based on factors such as personal behaviors, the environment, the quality and cost of health care and illness-related deaths. This year Minnesota topped the list and Louisiana ranked the least healthy state. View the report online at www.americashealthrankings.com.

Ohio’s challenges include a high rate of cancer and cardiovascular disease deaths, high prevalence of smoking, and high infant mortality rate. Strengths include a low rate of motor vehicle deaths, high immunization coverage, ready access to adequate prenatal care and a low incidence of infectious disease. In the past year, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 25.8 percent to 22.3 percent of the population. However, the rate of uninsured population increased from 8.7 percent to 12.3 percent.

Friday, December 15, 2006
Final Legislation Moves as Lame Duck Come to a Close
The Ohio House and Senate this week passed mental health parity legislation with an amendment that applies a 90-day moratorium on specialties hospitals in counties with populations of 140,000 (Clark, Licking and Greene). The amendment was added to Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Robert Spada (R-Parma), by 70 affirmative votes and is now on its way to the governor for his signature.

Also heading to the governor is Senate Bill 305, sponsored by Steve Stivers (R-Columbus), which will place into law building code exceptions for egress from hospital facilities for special needs population patients. Requested by OHA, the proposed language provides that a secured facility may take reasonable steps to deny egress to confine and protect patients or residents who are not capable of self-preservations—such a maternity and psychiatric patients.

OHA continues to strongly support the efforts of Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) as he leads a successful effort to define the parameters of the implementation of Issue 2 – the minimum wage amendment – by honing language to address privacy concerns for employees. Seitz’s efforts are bolstered by existing constitutional language authorizing the legislature to implement policy impacting wage issues. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org; Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

OHA Receives Final Word on Jan. 1 Start of BWC’s New Inpatient Payment Plan
OHA received the final announcement from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation that it will start a new inpatient hospital payment system on Jan. 1, 2007, that is based on what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pays for Medicare. View the letter at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/letters/121406ipps.pdf. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org)

Hospitals’ Heartbeat
A 2006 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award

Ken Berry
Patient Care Assistant, Rehabilitation Services
Robinson Memorial Hospital
Ravenna

A look inside Ken’s nomination –
Ken Berry is a Patient Care Assistant at Robinson Memorial Hospital. This strong, gentle man is much beloved by his patients, their families and fellow staff. Ken has gone beyond the call of duty for more than 15 years despite being legally blind. He provides direct patient care by assisting the therapy staff in treating patients and meeting their needs. He is THE go-to person in the hospital for assisting with heavy patients, patients who have fallen, or responding to hospital codes. His willingness to help out includes staying on the floor at lunch to check on patients who might want to return to their beds, staying late and covering weekends whenever asked. His patience and work ethic makes working with him a joy.