Submit Medicare Physician Attestation Statements by May 3
What’s happening: As a condition of participation, Medicare-certified hospitals must complete attestation and acknowledgment of physicians with newly granted admitting privileges in the previous calendar year.
What else to know: Attestation statements for 2023 should be submitted by May 3.
CMS Revises Informed Consent Guidance for Hospitals
What’s happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated its Hospital Interpretive Guidelines for Informed Consent.
What else to know: The guidance clarifies the need to obtain informed consent from patients to perform important surgical tasks, and sensitive or invasive procedures, as well as examinations outside of the medically necessary procedure.
HCAI, OSHPD Release Design Guide for Planning and Preparing for Disasters
What’s happening: The Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) have released a new Design Guide for Planning and Preparing for Disasters to assist hospitals in planning, preparing, and responding to disasters.
What else to know: The 102-page document includes coordinating references and illustrations supporting hospitals’ obligation to save lives and prevent injury or property damage in their emergency response.
CHA Translates Required Patient Language Assistance Taglines
What’s happening: Regulations recently adopted by the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) under the Hospital Fair Pricing Policies Law require hospitals to provide “taglines” on patient documents in several different languages.
What else to know: The taglines inform patients that language assistance services are available and how to access them. CHA has included a tagline sheet with translations in 18 languages.
AHA Will Host Webinar on Hospital Price Transparency Requirements
What’s happening: The American Hospital Association (AHA) will host a members-only webinar on April 10 at noon (PT) to discuss new hospital price transparency machine-readable format requirements.
What else to know: CHA encourages AHA members to register.
CMS Updates Hospital Guidance for Texting Patient Info
What’s happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated guidance for hospitals and critical access hospitals related to texting patient information.
What else to know: Hospitals should use a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant secure texting platform that complies with Medicare and Medicaid conditions of participation.
Changes Finalized to Substance Use Disorder Record Sharing Rules
What’s happening: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued long-awaited regulations implementing changes to requirements for sharing substance use disorder (SUD) patient data.
What else to know: The CHA-supported regulations are intended to better align SUD record-sharing rules with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.
CMS-Compliant Health Equity Programs
Join this webinar to learn more and ask questions of experts on hand to help you through this process.
Data Exchange Framework Resources Available on CHA Website
What’s happening: Assembly Bill 133 (Statutes of 2021) outlined the requirement for health care providers, plans, and other entities to exchange health information in real time for treatment, payment, or health care operations.
What else to know: In July 2023, the California Health and Human Services Agency’s Center for Data Insights and Innovation released the Data Exchange Framework (DxF) and data sharing agreement (DSA), which outline the initial requirements for health information exchange for health and human services organizations in California. To facilitate compliance with the DxF, CHA has gathered current information regarding the DxF, the DSA, and related policies and procedures.
Requirements Expanded for Hospital Supplier Diversity Program
What’s happening: Assembly Bill (AB) 1392 expands the existing requirements for the Hospital Supplier Diversity Program for 2025.
What else to know: Beginning with the July 2025 report, hospitals must include their plans for increasing procurement from diverse suppliers, contact information for interested businesses, and descriptions of the procurement processes.