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The California Board of Pharmacy released an informational statement this week intended to give compounding pharmacies some direction in light of the United States Pharmacopeia’s (USP) revised and new chapters, which have been delayed.
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“When considering cost containment, are researchers and policymakers considering hospital system membership separate from market concentration? They probably should.”
That tweet, posted by the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, references a study it just published on hospital system participation and health care spending. The study offers an important counter-perspective to the conventional wisdom that hospital “systemness” increases costs.
Recent public discourse about hospital integration often assumes that it contributes to overall health care spending, but the USC researchers discovered some trends to the contrary that must be considered:
Hospital system membership and market concentration are two different issues. The researchers found that hospital systems are not strongly correlated with market concentration and tend to have a broad reach beyond geographic markets.
States with the highest proportion of system hospitals tend to have lower per capita hospital costs. California ranks as the ninth lowest state in per capita hospital costs (75% of hospitals beds in the state are part of hospital systems).
What we also know about hospitals that join forces within systems is that they improve their ability to leverage resources, innovation, and technology. This creates efficiencies for coping with burdensome regulations and enables a shift of resources to quality initiatives. In many areas — like rural and underserved communities — system integration preserves access to care by keeping open hospitals that might otherwise shutter.
Patient care in the 21st century has meant more hospitals reinventing themselves to meet their patients’ and communities’ needs by integrating and, in so doing, creating more options for people to get the right care at the right time and in the right setting.
This new data suggesting hospital systems yield lower health care spending means that policy makers will need to reconsider some common assumptions if they want to preserve high-quality care while keeping costs in check.
In 2020, as California lawmakers focus more keenly than ever on the issue of health care affordability, integration will be part of the discussion — and studies like these, which demonstrate the need for more research, will be critical to shifting the tone in the Capitol.
— Carmela
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its final rule updating the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) prospective payment system (PPS) and policies related to durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) for calendar year (CY) 2020. The provisions of the final rule are effective on Jan. 1.
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A U.S. District Court judge has voided the Trump administration’s controversial “conscience rule” regulation, which would have protected health care workers who refused to take part in certain health care services — such as abortion, sterilization, and assisted suicide — on religious or moral grounds.
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Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 265, a measure intended to prevent situations where school meal programs pressure students who have fallen behind in paying for their meals — a practice often referred to as “lunch shaming.” Our Health California (OHC), CHA’s online community of Californians with an interest in public health, showed strong support for the law, sending nearly 3,500 emails and more than 480 tweets urging the governor to sign the bill.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released the following information:
CAHs: Hardship Exception Application Deadline December 2
IRF/LTCH/SNF Quality Reporting Program: Submission Deadline Extended to November 18
Home Health Agency: Final OASIS D-1 Data Submission Specifications
Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Test Payment System: Data Reporting Call — November 14
New Medicare Card: HICN Claims Reject January 1, 2020
Webinar: Submitting CY 2019 Data Using the Next Generation of Hospital Quality Reporting, November 20
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Tom Insel, MD, behavioral health advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom, recently sat down for a one-on-one conversation with CHA’s President & CEO Carmela Coyle to discuss behavioral health care challenges across California’s 58 counties. The two discussed fundamental impediments to access to care, including lack of capacity, behavioral health care workforce shortages, getting patients the right care in the right setting, and hospitals’ role in caring for patients’ physical and behavioral health care needs.
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The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has issued All Facilities Letter (AFL) 19-30.1 — rescinding AFL 19-30 — explaining requirements and processes for health care facilities to report public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events to CDPH as “unusual occurrences.”
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Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey will open CHA’s day-long conference, Caring for Our Patients Who Are Homeless Summit, Dec. 11 at the Riverside Convention Center.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its final rule updating the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS), quality payment program, and other Medicare Part B payment policies for calendar year (CY) 2020. The final rule is effective Jan. 1.