United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres announced the UN’s policy brief on COVID-19 and mental health last week and urged the international community to do much more to protect those who face rising mental pressures. He said that mental health services are an essential part of all government responses to COVID-19 that must be expanded and fully funded.
Last week, CHA issued an alert asking hospital leaders to urge state and federal lawmakers to allocate billions more in funding to support hospitals and health systems in their efforts to fight COVID-19 and help California safely reopen. A House bill has been introduced and is expected to be voted on Friday, so letters to representatives are needed before then.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) proposed rule. In addition to annual payment and quality program updates, the proposed rule would require certain payer-negotiated rates to be reported on the cost report, make changes to Medicare disproportionate share (DSH) payments, and establish a new Medicare Severity-Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG) payment for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued the following updates this week:
CMS Updates Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Specifications for 2021 Reporting.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) proposed rule for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021. Comments on the proposed rule are due July 10.
As part of its Perinatal Mental Health (PMH) Learning Community, the Hospital Quality Institute (HQI) has unveiled a package of online resources to help hospitals strengthen approaches to maternal mental health.
At its April 30 meeting, the CHA Board of Trustees discussed several aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
The policy work completed to date that supports hospitals’ efforts to prepare for surge capacity
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published previously released final rules — one from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the other from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) — intended to improve the interoperability of health information and define regulations to prevent information blocking. Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, certain provider compliance and enforcement deadlines have been updated since the regulations were first released on March 9.
An initiative that would revamp California’s 45-year-old Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) has been put on hold because of COVID-19. Backers of the initiative, which would increase the medical malpractice compensation cap and undermine other provider protections, have collected nearly 1 million signatures for the November 2020 ballot, but have decided to push the issue until November 2022.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued the following updates this week:
CMS Extends Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program Hardship Exception Application to September 1
