Last week, a federal district court
ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
exceeded its statutory authority when it implemented a 30%
reduction to 2019 Medicare reimbursement rates — included in the
federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019 outpatient prospective payment
system (OPPS) final rule — for certain pharmaceutical drugs
covered by the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
Yesterday, CHA issued a
news release on Gov. Newsom’s revised 2019-20 state budget.
CHA applauds the Governor for making investments that improve
Californians’ health and well-being, including: ongoing support
for expanding Medi-Cal coverage to young adults, regardless of
immigration status; imposing a state-level individual coverage
mandate; broader premium subsidies for low and middle-income
families; and significant investments in behavioral health.
On April 16, the California Emergency Medical Services Authority
announced that six entities had been awarded between $1.5 and
$4.9 million dollars to develop and implement interoperable
health information exchange (HIE) between emergency ambulance
service providers and hospitals/electronic health records via
health information exchange organizations (HIOs).
A CHA-supported bill that would allow nurse practitioners (NPs)
to practice to the full extent of their education and training –
AB 890 (Wood,
D-Santa Rosa) – passed the Assembly Committee on Business and
Professions today.
CHA member hospitals today gathered in Sacramento for a Lobby
Action Day (photo
gallery) to urge legislators to support Senate Bill
758 (Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge), a bill that will be
amended to give hospitals the flexibility they need to tailor
post-disaster care to meet the unique needs of their communities.
Today’s event followed a
radio interview that CHA President & CEO Carmela Coyle
participated in yesterday about a new
report that says current seismic requirements may be outdated
and prohibitively expensive.
In response to providers’
recent challenges implementing new requirements for opioid
prescriptions, the governor has signed into law a bill that
allows a transition period before the requirements become
effective.
Yesterday, the American Hospital Association (AHA) released
updated resources for its 340B Good Stewardship Principles. To
date, more than 60 percent of California’s 340B hospitals have
signed on to the AHA commitment.
In an effort to help reduce the stigma around behavioral health issues, CHA has released a new video featuring five accomplished health care executives who have faced mental health challenges. The powerful “truth telling” video is the product of the keynote session at CHA’s recent Behavioral Health Symposium.
In the first study of its kind, scientists have shown that eating
ultra-processed foods leads to weight gain in human volunteers in
as little as 2 weeks.
There are plenty of studies in mice linking processed foods to
problems such as obesity and intestinal inflammation.
But mice are not people, as critics of such studies are quick to
point out.
In humans, researchers have reported associations between
processed foods and health outcomes, such as an increased risk of
developing obesity, cancer, autoimmune conditions, and even
death.
The House on Thursday passed a suite of health care bills that
tied shoring up the Affordable Care Act to lowering drug prices,
as Democrats tried to hold Republicans to their campaign promises
to secure coverage for pre-existing medical conditions and rein
in the cost of prescription medicine.
But Democratic leaders appeared to be focused less on the
substance of the measures than on their likely demise in the
Republican-controlled Senate.
Emergency room patients increasingly leave California hospitals
against medical advice, and experts say crowded ERs are likely to
blame.
About 352,000 California ER visits in 2017 ended when patients
left after seeing a doctor but before their medical care was
complete. That’s up by 57%, or 128,000 incidents, from 2012,
according to data from the Office of Statewide Health Planning
and Development.
Another 322,000 would-be patients left the emergency room without
seeing a doctor, up from 315,000 such episodes in 2012.
State lawmakers had a chance Thursday to vote on ensuring that
all Californians get the healthcare they need. Instead of rising
to the occasion, they punted.
No, the matter at hand wasn’t a single-payer bill to provide
universal coverage, although that would be a good thing too.
Rather, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee decided
to put off a vote until next year on a bill that would expand the
ability of nurse practitioners to treat patients.
Such a move would go a long way toward addressing a severe
shortage of primary-care doctors and would align us with other
states that have adopted similar measures.
Delivering
remarks on surprise medical billing, which is a concern that
has drawn bipartisan interest, President Donald Trump waded into
another high-profile health issue: making sure insurance protects
people who have preexisting health conditions.
“We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions,
very importantly,” Trump said on May 9.
It’s natural Trump would want to make this claim.
Polling from the Kaiser
Family Foundation suggests that such protections, which
prohibit individual insurance plans from charging people more
based on their medical history, are a top priority for Americans
and among the most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
(KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
Thanks to the state’s embrace of Obamacare, California has
expanded health insurance to millions of uninsured residents over
the last five years. But as the number of people covered has
grown, so has the strain on the doctors, clinics and hospitals
that must respond to the increasing demand for care.
The problem is especially acute when it comes to primary care
doctors and other front-line care providers, such as physician
assistants and nurse practitioners. A study by UC San Francisco
estimated that the state will have a
shortfall of 4,700 of these clinicians by 2025. And the
California Future Health Workforce Commission warned earlier this
year: “Seven million Californians, the vast majority of them
Latino, black and Native American, live in Health Professional
Shortage Areas — a federal designation for counties experiencing
shortfalls of primary care, dental care or mental health care
providers.”
The U.S. birthrate fell again in 2018, to 3,788,235 births —
representing a 2% drop from 2017. It’s the lowest number of
births in 32 years, according to a new federal report. The
numbers also sank the U.S. fertility rate to a record low.
Not since 1986 has the U.S. seen so few babies born. And it’s an
ongoing slump: 2018 was the fourth consecutive year of birth
declines, according to the provisional
birthrate report from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Birthrates fell for nearly all racial and age groups, with only
slight gains for women in their late 30s and early 40s, the CDC
says.
Hospitals’ ability to
withstand natural disasters while keeping their patients safe
came under scrutiny by the House Ways and Means Committee
Wednesday.
But lawmakers mostly avoided talking about new hospital
regulations as they convened the panel’s first hearing on climate
change in 12 years.
When the issue came up, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) immediately
signaled concern about where the money should come from, as she
doesn’t want the government to add costs to rural hospitals. She
asked whether the federal government should start funding
hospital preparations.
A new report, “Meeting the Demand for Health,” outlines the need
for a statewide infrastructure designed to produce a steady
pipeline of professionals who can care for California’s growing
and aging population.
Nearly 50 of California’s hospital and health system leaders
trekked almost 3,000 miles to D.C. to share with members of
Congress the legislative changes they need to successfully meet
their mission of care back home.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) has released a series of resources intended to help
providers incorporate, in their disaster planning, strategies to
care for patients with serious mental illness.
CHA’s latest guidebook, Discharge Planning for Homeless
Patients, explains California’s new homeless patient
discharge planning law and offers insights to help hospitals
prepare to return homeless patients to the community.
Location:
May 23, Oakland
June 6, Sacramento June 6, New Live Stream Option
Consent for treatment decisions often must be made quickly and may carry significant ramifications for patients, their families and your hospital. Ever-changing regulations further complicate matters.
May 21, 2019
3:30 – 5:00 p.m., Pacific Time
A complimentary, CHA members-only webinar
Measles has recently reemerged and risen to outbreak status in several states, including California. This year, there have been four outbreaks of measles linked to international travel in California, with 44 confirmed cases of measles, to date. The resurgence of this highly contagious disease has resulted in hospitals reevaluating their protocols ― both from the patient care and employee safety perspectives — as the disease can turn up in any county at any time.
On July 1, 2019, SB 1152 requires hospitals to have a written plan for coordinating services and referrals for homeless patients. Successful implementation will hinge upon working with your regional health care and social service agencies to ensure appropriate homeless patient discharge. Further, the law requires that hospitals maintain a log of homeless patients discharged and the destinations to which they were released after discharge.
There are 58 counties in California. Not all of them have similar protocols or relationships with our hospitals. In fact, California hospitals have reported frustration or confusion when trying to decipher county mental health and substance use disorder services. Navigating multiple funding streams across multiple counties can be confusing.
June 19, 2019
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Pacific Time
A technique we have seen payers use more commonly in recent months than in the past is to unilaterally implement policies and guidelines through provider manuals that arguably change the coverage, steerage, and/or reimbursement of key healthcare services for their members. These policy changes oftentimes have material effects on the amounts hospitals actually receive under their contracts. Providers seldom have any input into these revisions, and they are frequently imposed on providers with little or no notice.
CHA’s Disaster Planning for California Hospitals conference is the largest statewide conference developed by and for California hospitals. Mark your calendars for this annual event where you will bolster your emergency preparedness knowledge and learn about innovative programs, tools and lessons learned from across the industry.
Throughout the year, CHA offers numerous programs designed to
meet the needs of hospital executives. Whether you work in human
resources, risk management, reimbursement, disaster planning or
plant operations we are likely to have a program that will help
you do your best for your facility.
CHA’s EMTALA Manual explains the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to minimize risk and help hospitals avoid lawsuits. The manual is full of sample scenarios and answers to hundreds of real-world questions, and provides practical guidance to hospitals, physicians, and nurses to simplify compliance with patient anti-dumping laws.
The 2018 edition has been updated to reflect five more years’ experience with the law, and:
CHA’s Hospital Compliance Manual is the only publication written for hospital compliance officers that integrates California with federal law on high-risk compliance areas. Written by Hooper, Lundy & Bookman, PC, and CHA, the manual focuses on high-risk compliance issues and the key components of an effective compliance program.
This comprehensive resource addresses all state and federal laws related to the privacy of health information, and provides guidance to help hospitals comply with increasingly complex regulations. Laws covered include:
