Rural Hospitals are in Jeopardy
If the Super-Committee fails to meet the Thanksgiving deadline, projected cuts to rural facilities over the next 10 years will be $6 billion
Overview
(From NRHA > Government Affairs > Congressional Action Kit)
As part of the debt ceiling bill, a 12-person "Super Committee" was established and tasked with finding an additional $1.5 trillion in cuts to the deficit by Thanksgiving. If Congress deadlocks and fails to pass the plan or enacts less than $1.2 trillion in cuts by Dec. 23, across-the-board spending cuts would be triggered to make up the difference between the committee number and the $1.2 trillion savings goal, largely affecting Medicare. Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, if Congress fails to meet the $1.2T budget reduction goal by November 23, 2011 an automatic sequestration process will reduce government spending programs, including up to a 2% reduction to Medicare. Decreasing Medicare payments to Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) will push many of these rural hospitals to the brink of closing their doors. (READ MORE from NRHA in Rural Hospitals Hurt in Sequestrian)
What You Can Do
Forward this letter (doc) to your representatives and ask them to sign it and send it to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction in support of rural communities.
» Click here to access NRHA’s congressional action kit, which includes more sample letters, suggestions, and tips.
RELATED
• Rural hospitals in crosshairs of federal budget-cutters (RGJ.com, October 17, 2011)
• Senator Jerry Moran urges Super Committee to protect rural safety nets (Rural Health Voices, October 28, 2011)
• Senators Conrad, Hoeven support Frontier States amendment (Rural Health Voices, October 27, 2011)
• Super Committee meets, discusses discretionary spending (Rural Health Voices, October 26, 2011)
Just Released: Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators
HealthyPeople.gov
Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with nearly 600 objectives (with others still evolving), which encompass 1,200 measures. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, called Leading Health Indicators, has been selected to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them.
» MORE INFORMATION
Bracing for Medicaid expansion
by Doug Trapp, amednews staff
October 3, 2011 (amednews.com) - States with low physician supply could struggle to meet the demand posed by the health reform law's Medicaid expansion starting in 2014.
More than two years remain before millions of low-income Americans gain Medicaid eligibility through an expansion authorized by the health system reform law, but it's already clear the overhaul will affect some states much more than others.
Certain states in the Northeast and Midwest already cover most or all of their poorest residents. So the health reform law's Medicaid expansion to 133% of the federal poverty level should pose relatively little strain to their safety nets.
» CONTINUE READING
RELATED •
Medicaid math—fun and confusion with numbers (ModernHealthcare.com, October 28, 2011)
EMRs: Your transition from paper by Pamela Lewis Dolan, amednews staff
October 24, 2011 (amednews.com) - Going to electronic records is more than flipping a switch. Practices must determine what do with old charts -- and how long to hang onto them.
During the change to an electronic medical record system, the focus for many practices is on how data will be collected, stored and analyzed going forward. But in most cases, there are many years' worth of historical data in paper files that physicians will need post-EMR.
Many practices are left wondering what data should be transferred to the EMR and how. And what happens to the data that remain on paper?
» CONTINUE READING
Two New CMS FAQs: Counting Thresholds in Multiple Certified EHR Environments
by Louis Winzlow
October 29, 2011 (www.worh.org) -
Two New CMS FAQs: Counting Thresholds in Multiple Certified EHR Environments
CMS has issued two new FAQs that address the issue of how providers should count meaningful use objective thresholds when utilizing different certified EHR technologies in different settings. This could be an issue for those that are, for example, utilizing a certified ED EHR that’s different than the hospital’s certified inpatient EHR and not interfacing every objective’s numerator data captured in the ED back to the inpatient (HIS) side (which would be common in this dual-system circumstance).
According to the FAQs:
For the clinical quality measures objective, “eligible hospitals and CAHs that have multiple systems should generate a report from each of those certified EHR systems and then add the numerators, denominators, and exclusions from each generated report in order to arrive at a number that reflects the total data output for patient encounters in the relevant departments of the eligible hospital or CAH.”
» CONTINUE READING
CMS: Rural Health Clinic Claims on Hold
October 28, 2011 (CGSmedicare.com) - CMS has identified a claim processing problem impacting Rural Health Clinic (RHC) claims where claims submitted with more than one preventative service results in double reimbursement. We are holding RHC claims, type of bill 71X, submitted with more than one of the preventative services noted in change request (CR) 7208 found on the CMS Web site (PDF, 210 KB). As soon as a system fix is in place and successfully tested, these claims will be released for processing.
» SOURCE
Medicare and Medicaid Programs; The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities for Approval of Deeming Authority for Rural Health Clinics
Comment Request
Oct 28, 2011 (RAConline.org) - Comments are being requested by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on this proposed notice with comment period that acknowledges the receipt of a deeming application from the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF) for recognition as a national accrediting organization for rural health clinics (RHCs) that wish to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid programs.
» READ & COMMENT
CMS redesigns Medicare ACOs to be more appealing to physicians by Charles Fiegl, amednews staff
October 31, 2011 (amednews.com) - Organized medicine continues to review the final rule but welcomes what it says are needed changes to the shared savings program.
The Obama administration's final rule on Medicare accountable care organizations removes several proposed conditions on participants in an effort to make the new shared savings payment model more enticing to physicians and other key players.
As many as 270 ACO networks are expected to participate in the Medicare pay model that encourages physicians and hospitals to coordinate patient care in a way that improves quality and saves the program money. From 2012 through 2015, Medicare could save an estimated $1.8 billion and let groups share in $1.3 billion in bonuses for hitting savings targets, thus saving Medicare a net of about $500 million.
After criticism about its March 31 proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released an Oct. 20 final rule that gives physicians the option to join an ACO without being exposed to financial penalties if saving targets are not achieved. CMS also softened program requirements by reducing the number of quality measures physicians must report and removing a condition that at least 50% of participants must satisfy meaningful use standards for electronic medical records.
» CONTINUE READING
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