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To help pay for the nearly $1 trillion implementation cost of health care reform, President Obama directed federal and state authorities to expand their use of recovery audits to reduce fraudulent, wasteful or abusive practices within Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs. Under this directive, hospitals should expect increased scrutiny of government reimbursement of health care.
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Responding to hospitals’ concerns over the continuing shortage of certain intravenous solutions used in clinical care, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced that certain products manufactured by Baxter Healthcare Corporation may be used beyond their labeled expiration date. To help ensure patient safety, these products should continue to be stored as labeled. If replacement product becomes available during the extension period, hospitals are expected to replace and properly dispose of the products soon as possible. Health care professionals are instructed to squeeze the bags prior to use to verify they do not have leaks; if leaks are found, the bags should not be used.
Hospitals are required to conduct and review their Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) annually. The HVA is a systematic approach to identifying hazards that may affect demand for the hospitals services or its ability to provide those services. The risks associated with each hazard are analyzed to prioritize planning, mitigation, response and recovery activities. The HVA serves as a needs assessment for the Emergency Management program. This process should involve community partners and be communicated to community emergency response agencies.
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What’s happening: CHA will host a webinar on May 10 at 9 a.m. (PT) about a new option for hospitals to connect frequent users of emergency departments (EDs) and inpatient psychiatric services to the help they need: the Community, Assistance, Recovery & Empowerment (CARE) Act. What else to know: The webinar is free for CHA...
The topics covered in the Emergency Management Principles and Practices curriculum are vital for enhancing hospital planning efforts. These principles are essential for coordinating efforts among various agencies and ensuring a unified approach to crisis management.
In today’s fast-paced work environments, workloads can feel overwhelming, especially when there is little time to perform tasks. Learn how one Southern California hospital has integrated Microsoft 365 into its Emergency Management (EM) program to streamline workflows, including: Establishing a virtual Hospital Command Center on Microsoft Teams Developing electronic forms for disaster status reports Automating […]
This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.
This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.
According to results from the American Hospital Association’s quarterly RACTrac survey, recovery audit contractor (RAC) reviews continue to increase for hospitals. AHA reports that medical record requests have increased by 47 percent, while complex audit denials have increased by 58 percent since the fourth quarter of 2012. In addition, 45 percent of hospitals that participated in the survey experienced overturned denials through use of the discussion period.
AHA will host a webinar on Sept. 19 to review the RACTrac survey results as well as recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulations that impact the RAC program. For more information, visit www.aha.org/ractrac. A copy of the survey report is attached.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) leads the country in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the adverse health effects of emergencies and disasters. This is accomplished by supporting the nation’s ability to withstand adversity, strengthening health and emergency response systems, and enhancing national health security.
CHA has developed the following checklists and tools to provide guidance in hospital
disaster preparedness planning.
