In this issue
National
Patient Safety Week recognizes hospitals’ commitment to safe care
This week is National Patient Safety Awareness Week, a time to
educate and increase awareness of patient safety activities throughout the
health care continuum. Hospitals across the state are holding activities that
highlight the theme and their year-round commitment, Navigate Your Health …
Safely. MHA encourages you to find ways to engage patients and their families to
be active participants in their care and champions for safety. Hospitals should
promote this celebration and your good work to keep patients safe through
events, social media and stories in your local media and on your website.
We are asking that you share with us your plans to celebrate this week as well
as any patient safety milestones or new initiatives that you’re working on so
we can amplify your work statewide. For more information, visit the National
Patient Safety Week website. return to top
Sens.
Klobuchar and Franken sign on to remove the 96-hour physician certification
requirement for CAHs
Last week, U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jon Tester (D-MT)
introduced S. 2037, the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Relief Act of 2014, to
remove the 96-hour physician certification requirement as a condition of
payment for critical access hospitals (CAHs).
Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D) and Al Franken (D) are among 14 original
co-sponsors of the bill.
Under the current requirement, physicians at CAHs must certify at the time of
admission that a Medicare beneficiary is expected to be discharged or
transferred to another hospital within 96 hours of admission as a condition of
payment. If something unforeseen occurs and the beneficiary needs to stay
longer than 96 hours, the physician must certify and document the changed
circumstances in order to still meet the condition of payment.
There is a separate and distinct condition of participation that requires CAHs
to provide acute inpatient care for a period that does not exceed, on an annual
average basis, 96 hours per patient. S. 2037 does not impact that condition of
participation.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has historically not enforced
the condition of payment, but recently published guidance implying that the
agency will enforce it going forward.
CAHs typically maintain an annual average of 96 hours per patient, but some of
the medical services they offer have lengths of stay greater than 96 hours per
patient. For example, a Medicare beneficiary with pneumonia may wish to receive
care from the local CAH and remain close to family and home rather than
traveling further to an urban or regional prospective payment system hospital.
“MHA appreciates Senators Klobuchar and Franken’s leadership on this
issue,” said Lawrence Massa, MHA president and CEO. “They recognize that if
this condition of payment is enforced, it could create an access issue for
rural beneficiaries. MHA strongly supports S. 2037 as a solution to this
problem.”
S. 2037 is a companion bill to the House version, H.R. 3991. MHA submitted a
request to all of Minnesota’s congressional offices encouraging them to
co-sponsor the bill. MHA members are encouraged to follow up with their
representatives to voice support of this request and to thank the senators for
their leadership.
For more information, contact Ann Gibson, MHA vice president of federal
relations and workforce, 651-603-3527. return to top
DHS
to address ICD-10 and Medicaid rates needs
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has identified
a vendor to assist with the implementation of two very important and
time-sensitive projects: ICD-10 conversion and inpatient Medicaid rates
rebasing. ICD-10 is the new billing code standard that is to be used to
describe inpatient medical interventions; the implementation date is Oct. 1,
2014. Since the current diagnosis-related group (DRG) payment methodology used
by DHS to pay hospitals for inpatient services will be outdated and unable to accept
the new coding standard, they also plan to convert the DRG payment method to a
Medicare-like APR-DRG system.
In the MHA Policy and Advocacy Committee meeting on Feb. 28, Julie Marquardt,
director of health care purchasing at DHS, cited the need to make these
conversions and to make the system more accurate, transparent and simplified.
Since there is currently no additional funding available for the conversion,
this process is expected to be completed on a budget-neutral basis. MHA has had
some conversations with DHS, and has stressed the importance of informing
hospitals of their intended changes. MHA will be hosting a finance meeting
with DHS to learn more about the details of the changes on Friday, March 13.
For more information, contact Joe Schindler, MHA vice president of finance,
651-659-1415. return to top
MDH
suspends ambulatory surgical center SQRMS requirements for 2014
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) last week announced
that it is suspending registration and quality measure reporting to the
Minnesota Statewide Quality Reporting and Measurement System (SQRMS) for
ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs). ASCs have been required to annually register
and report on three quality measures since 2011. According to MDH, nearly all
ASCs have shown a similar level of high performance on the three quality
measures during the reporting period, thus it is suspending the reporting
requirements to reduce provider reporting burden. As a result, ASCs do not need
to register with MNCM by April 1, 2014 or submit data to MNCM by August 15,
2014. This suspension only applies to SQRMS requirements for ASCs.
During 2014, MDH will deliberate ASC registration and reporting requirements
for 2015. MDH updates SQRMS registration and reporting requirements annually
through the state rulemaking process and invites public feedback multiple times
throughout the process, and the first comment period will open in April.
For more information on SQRMS, click here or contact MarkSonneborn, MHA vice president of information services, 651-659-1423.
return to top
Proposals
sought for Minnesota Accountable Health Model e-Health Grant Program
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) requests proposals for
the Minnesota Accountable Health Model e-Health Grant Program. The grants are
intended to support readiness to advance the Minnesota Accountable Health Model
and to prepare for potential participation in accountable communities for
health.
Eligible applicants are community collaboratives that have at least two or more
organizations participating in, or planning to participate in, an accountable
care organization (ACO) or similar health care delivery model; or payment
arrangements involving shared risk, shared savings or total cost of care.
Community collaboratives must include a partner organization from at least one
of the four priority settings of the Minnesota Accountable Health Model/SIM
grant: local public health departments, long-term and post-acute care,
behavioral health and social services.
Non-binding letters of intent to respond are due on Thursday, March 27 and
proposals are due Monday, May 5, 2014.
Visit the Minnesota Accountable Health Model RFPs webpage for more information, or contact Anne Schloegel at MDH with questions. return to top
Deadline
extended for annual CEO, CFO and CNE salary survey
The deadline for submitting this year’s chief executive officer,
chief financial officer and chief nurse executive online compensation surveys
has been extended to Friday,
March 7.
The broader the survey participation base, the more representative the results.
The survey results will highlight salary averages by budget size, years in
health care, geographical region, and years in current positions.
As always, the reported information will be kept confidential. Results will be
reported in summary form only, with no individual responses identified. Please
make sure to specify the email addresses the reports should be sent to at the
end of the surveys. The reports will be sent to participants the beginning of
May.
Members were emailed information on how to confidentially complete the surveys
on the MHA members-only website on Feb. 12.
If you have questions regarding the survey, contact Jonathan Peters, MHA director of data and finance policy, 651-659-1422. return to top
Hospitals
invited to Prescription Drug Abuse and Investigation Conference
Hospitals are invited to the 2014 Minnesota Chapter of National
Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI) annual conference on April
25 at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center in Alexandria.
The conference aims to provide an orientation to state resources and programs;
introduce health care, law enforcement and pharmacy activity; and identify
tools to support investigations. Specific topics to be covered include:
-
HIPAA – health care and law
enforcement sharing information
- Minnesota Prescription
Monitoring Program (PMP)
- Minnesota Restricted Recipient
Program (MRRP)
- Law enforcement criminal
investigations
- Investigating health care
diversion
Click here to learn more or to register. return to top
Member
participation requested for AHA annual survey
MHA is coordinating the collection of the AHA
annual survey of services, staffing, finances and electronic health record
(EHR) implementation. The cover letter, survey, walkthrough and
login/password were emailed to hospital CEOs on Feb.18. MHA encourages you
to complete the survey. The AHA directory of hospitals is useful for
identifying trends and the information is used for analysis in a variety of
ways at the national level. The deadline is March 31. Please enter
your survey information online here.
If you need login
and password assistance, email Jenny Sanislo, MHA division assistant. return to top