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Monday, J uly 16, 2007Hospitals’ Statewide Community Benefit Tops $1.5 Billion At a news conference today, OHA released Building Healthy Communities, the first coordinated, public statewide community benefit report for Ohio hospitals. The 166 Ohio hospitals that participated in the report provided $1.5 billion in community benefit in 2005, the most recent data available. Ohio hospitals are committed to providing benefits to their communities, and the report reflects hospitals’ charitable missions to care for their communities, said William Harding, chair of the OHA Board of Trustees and president and CEO of Union Hospital.
The $1.5 billion total includes an aggregate $320.8 million in Medicaid losses, $816 million in charity care and $887 million in community activities such as immunization programs, health screenings, medical research and education costs, disaster relief and support for community programs. The benefits hospitals provide to the communities they serve cannot fully be described with numbers.
"You can't measure the qualitative data that says we change people's lives," said Joy McMenemy Parker, director of the Mount Carmel Outreach program, whose mobile medical coach served more than 15,000 uninsured and underinsured patients in 2006.
The report also highlighted individual stories of hospitals and health care professionals going beyond expectations, such as the Healthy Connections Network in Akron. "People believe this [access to health care] is a hospital issue, but it's a larger issue - a community issue,” said Tracy Carter, director of advocacy and health policy for Summa Health System and former chair of the Healthy Connections Network Board of Directors. Healthy Connections, a collaboration of Summa Health System, Akron General Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Medical Center, works with other community partners to link uninsured citizens of Summit County with stable medical care.
OHA modeled its report on the Catholic Health Association’s and VHA Inc.’s “Community Benefit Reporting: Guidelines and Standard Definitions for the Community Benefit Inventory for Social Accountability.” View the report at http://www.ohanet.org/benefit. (Tiffany Himmelreich, tiffanyh@ohanet.org; Mary Sterenberg, marys@ohanet.org)
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OHA Salary Survey Extends Deadline OHA extended the deadline to Friday, July 20 for hospital participation in the 2007 Leadership and Staff Compensation Survey, the only comprehensive statewide hospital compensation information available in the state. OHA, with the help of MSA|Clark Consulting – Healthcare Group, for several years has conducted surveys of pay rates and practices for CEOs and more than 100 other leadership and staff positions at hospitals statewide. Participating hospitals, for a $300 fee, will receive copies of the report. Hospital human resource departments should have received a letter regarding the survey in June. For more information or a copy of the survey contact Debbie Wolfe at debbiew@ohanet.org or 614.221.7614.
Children Services Offers Free Training on New Guidelines Franklin County Children Services has implemented new screening guidelines and a new model for assessing children safety and is offering two free training sessions for professionals who are mandated to report child abuse and neglect. The four-hour training sessions will address the mandated reporter law and other pertinent laws, the new screening guidelines and the comprehensive assessment and planning model – interim solution (CAPMIS) tools, how professionals can make a referral and what they can expect, family assessments and the services that will be provided to families, and the role of the court.
The first training session is Aug. 15 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the second is Aug. 22 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Both sessions are at the Franklin County Children Services site at 855 W. Mound Street in Columbus. To sign up for a training session, contact Joetta McCruter-Polk at 614.341.6017 or vjmccrut@fccs.co.franklin.oh.us.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Governor’s Executive Order Allows Independent Home Care Workers to Bargain Collectively Earlier this week, Gov. Ted Strickland signed an executive order allowing home health care providers to bargain collectively with the State of Ohio. Specifically, Executive Order 2007 – 23S allows independent home care providers (IHCP) to elect, through a secret ballot election, an exclusive collective bargaining representative. The executive order applies only to ICHPs who provide ongoing Medicaid reimbursed direct care services through a Medicaid waiver program and explicitly does not apply to state employees or employees of private home care agencies. The IHCP’s elected bargaining representative will be recognized by the state agencies that administer the Medicaid-reimbursed services: the Departments of Aging, Job and Family Services, and Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
The executive order also describes the procedures to be followed in electing, bargaining with and decertifying the IHCP’s exclusive collective bargaining representative. Although some of these procedures mirror the requirements of the National Labor Relations Act, many do not. The executive order also provides that the parties will work jointly to obtain necessary state and federal regulatory and legislative changes to implement the terms of any collective bargaining agreement reached.
Although Gov. Strickland maintains that the executive order will promote a higher quality of care for consumers, critics maintain that the governor has overstepped his authority and that the order is a “step backwards” for the state’s efforts to contain health care costs. (Nancy Falk, nancyf@ohanet.org) Hospitals’ Heartbeat A 2007 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Lisa Berning, RN Ostomy Patient Educator Good Samaritan Hospital Cincinnati
A look inside Lisa’s nomination -
Lisa is
all about service excellence. She works tirelessly in her
role as ostomy patient educator. Patients trust and value
Lisa for her wonderful personality and professionalism. She
strives to grow professionally and her quality of work
reflects high standards. Lisa has the ability to recognize
the needs of others quickly and excels in developing
positive working relationships with her superiors, peers,
and most importantly, her patients. She can be trusted to
use good judgment and is extremely resourceful and
enthusiastic. Lisa makes strong efforts to bring out the
best in everyone and has made a significant impact in the
quality of care for Ohio health care consumers.
Challenges emerging in the responses include the lack of a uniform definition of what constitutes “uncompensated care” and differences in the way other components of community benefit are reported. Though the interim report is a summary and not an analysis of the responses, the IRS’s hospital project team did recommend developing a separate Form 990 schedule for hospitals as a way to address the lack of uniformity. The IRS will provide additional information once it completes its analysis of survey responses. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org)
Hospitals’
Heartbeat
Ann Lensch,
RN, MS
A look
inside Ann’s nomination
-
Friday, July 20, 2007 Medicare Outpatient PPS and ASC Rules Released The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week released companion rules updating Medicare outpatient hospital and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment systems. The proposed rule for the calendar-year 2008 hospital outpatient prospective payment system (HOPPS) includes a 3.3 percent payment increase and a requirement that hospitals must report 10 outpatient quality measures in 2008 to receive the full payment update in 2009. The proposed rule also includes proposals on "composite" ambulatory payment classifications, in which CMS would bundle charges for major services performed on the same day, and several changes to the Medicare Conditions of Participation on medical records documentation and post-surgery patient evaluations.
In a final ASC payment rule for 2008, CMS greatly expands the types of surgical procedures that can be performed in an ASC setting and, as expected, begins a four-year ASC transition to the HOPPS. Overriding intense opposition, CMS will pay ASCs only 65 percent of what a hospital is paid for the same procedure and caps payment for physician "office-based" procedures at what physicians are paid for the same service.
Both rules are expected to be published in the Aug. 2 Federal Register. OHA is in the process of analyzing the proposals and will report again later this month. View a related CMS news release. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org) Ohio Hospital Community Benefit: $1.5 billion Actual Impact on the Lives of Ohioans: Priceless Joseph Jancsurak prevented a stroke when he learned early that his left carotid artery was more than 80 percent blocked. Dee Buck received the care she needed to overcome health problems that threatened to sideline her new business despite a lack of insurance. Gallia County Local Schools passed a crucial levy and students now have needed resources. Five-week-old Dylan Frught, a victim of Hurricane Katrina, recuperated in the presence of his parents instead of cross country.
These stories are just a few of those that appear in the Ohio Hospital Association’s first public, coordinated hospital community benefit report, released this week. The report outlines hospitals’ more than $1.5 billion benefit to their communities, and while the $1.5 billion number is big, the stories behind the number are even bigger. They truly illustrate how hospitals and caregivers live out their charitable missions every day. For more information, view OHA’s July HealthBeat article.
A 2007 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Susan Miller, RN Breast Health Nurse/Cancer Educator Grady Memorial Hospital Delaware
A look inside Susan’s nomination - Susie is a caring, giving nurse, offering community programs for Grady Memorial Hospital's service area. She is always willing to attend community events and health fairs to share cancer information and offer cancer risk assessments. She relates well to people of all ages, offering an empathic ear and sound advice. Her knowledge of cancer, particularly breast cancer, is built from years of study and experience, but she is constantly updating and learning the latest advances. Her customer service skills have set her apart as a leader in our organization. © 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
January 03, 2008. |
