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The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) has appointed CHA to two important workgroups for its multi-year California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative, which seeks to improve health outcomes for Medi-Cal members through payment, program, and delivery system reforms.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released the following information:
New Medicare Card: Claim Reject Codes After January 1
Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Test Payment System: Data Reporting Call — November 14
November 15: IRF, LTCH, SNF Quality Reporting Program Submission Deadline
October 2019 Nursing Home Compare Refresh Available
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CHA has submitted comments on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) proposed changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records (Part 2) regulations.
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It’s easy to be distracted by the news coming out of Washington, D.C., these days, much of which has little to do with sound policies that advance hospitals’ efforts to care for their patients. But on the issue of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments, we cannot afford to lose focus in our fight against devastating funding cuts to hospitals that serve the uninsured and underinsured.
This issue tops our current federal advocacy priorities because it is time sensitive: the DSH cuts were scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1 but were briefly delayed by the current temporary spending bill. When that measure expires on Nov. 21, unless the cuts are eliminated or further delayed, they will take effect immediately.
Now is the time for a full-court press urging Congress to continue this vital source of funding for safety-net hospitals.
Medicaid DSH cuts were adopted as part of the Affordable Care Act, on the assumption that the number of uninsured Americans would decrease more than it has. In California, 2.9 million people remain without health insurance. Those patients are disproportionately served by our safety-net hospitals, which rely heavily on DSH payments to offset the cost of the uncompensated care they provide.
As planned, the cuts will be unsustainable for California’s safety-net hospitals, reducing DSH allotments in the state by $500 million in 2020 and by about $950 million a year from 2021 through 2025.
So far, members of Congress have been willing to delay these drastic reductions while millions remain without coverage, but the time has come to once again impress upon Congress the essential nature of DSH payments to safety-net hospitals and their patients. To that end, CHA is leading an effort to press the California congressional delegation to sign a letter that urges House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to support eliminating the cuts for another two years.
Next week, we’ll be sending an Advocacy Alert to member hospitals, asking you to contact your representative about signing the letter. This is an issue that all hospitals should care about — because cuts of this magnitude will jeopardize access to care for millions.
For lawmakers to support a policy that diminishes access to care for California’s most vulnerable patients is unacceptable. It is incumbent upon all of us to let them know that.
— Carmela
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Model Medical Staff Bylaws and Rules Member Forum
Originally recorded December 3, 2019.
Recording
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The California Hospital Association is the statewide leader representing the interests of more than 400 hospitals and health systems in California. We collaborate with our members to provide strong and effective representation and advocacy to advance the interests of California hospitals, patients and communities. CHA is a trusted resource, working with members to achieve legislative, regulatory, and legal accomplishments at the state and federal level.
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The 2020 California Hospital Volunteer Leadership Conference, “Engineering Change. Inspiring Leadership,” has been set for Feb. 17-19, 2020, at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach.
The conference is designed as an educational and networking experience for paid staff who manage volunteer programs, hospital volunteer leaders, community partners, and hospital inter-professional peers looking to expand their hospital services through the use of volunteer programs.
Learning experiences and dialogue topics will include emergency services, retail, social determinants of health, volunteer management, youth programs and workforce.
Two keynote presenters include California Hospital Association President & CEO Carmela Coyle and Sharp HealthCare’s Daniel Gross, DNSc, RN, executive vice president, hospital operations.
Online registration for attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, and advertisers will be available soon.
Discounted sleeping rooms are available at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach until Jan. 24, 2020. To book, call (800) 233-1442 and mention CAHHS or California hospital volunteers. For more information about the conference, visit www.calhospital.org/2020-volunteer-conference.
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CHA reminds members that beginning Jan. 1, 2020, all provider claims must be submitted with Medicare beneficiary identifiers (MBIs) regardless of the date the service was performed. Claims submitted with Social Security number-based health insurance claim numbers will be rejected, with a few exceptions.
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CHA’s annual Behavioral Health Symposium, to be held Dec. 9-10 in Riverside, features a broad range of topics for behavioral health professionals to explore. This year’s agenda emphasizes key policy issues and the innovative inroads others have made, featuring sessions on managing change, eliminating stigma, collaborating with counties, and a CEO panel titled “What Keeps You Awake at Night?”
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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three bills this session that amend the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), slated to take effect Jan. 1. The CCPA gives consumers the right to know what information about them a business holds, to restrict a business from sharing their information, and to have a business delete information about them, and assures other privacy rights.