Changing News Archive - January, 2010

HIPAA privacy and security officers need not revamp their entire policy and training program because of the "meaningful use" of electronic health records (EHR) guidelines published this month in the Federal Register.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – National Surgical Hospitals, an owner of surgical hospitals and surgery centers in partnership with local physicians, has opened its newest facility in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The new hospital, which NSH will operate in partnership with a group of 55 area physicians, is the company's 15th surgical hospital to open nationwide and its fifth in Texas.

"By accelerating the construction process by more than 90 days, we completed this facility well ahead of schedule and have already received accreditation from the Joint Commission, which enables the hospital to participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs and positions it to grow and thrive in the current regulatory environment," said John Rex-Waller, president of NSH.

The US has seen a steady improvement over the past seven years in patient care quality, according to The Joint Commission's new annual report.

The annual report, "Improving America's Hospitals: The Joint Commission's Report on Quality and Safety 2009," looks at heart attacks, heart failures, pneumonia, and surgical conditions, and provides evidence of improvements made.

White House and Congressional leaders passed another important signpost Thursday on the road to completing the healthcare reform bill. Following marathon negotiations with labor union leaders all week, a new deal was reportedly hammered out over the issue of taxing employees' high-cost or "Cadillac plans."

The provision, which originated in the Senate bill, will remain, but the threshold at which the 40% tax would kick-in with the high-cost plans would change. The threshold would now be for families whose plans' value reach $24,000—up from $23,000; for individuals, the $8,500 threshold is likely to remain the same.

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted corrections to the 2010 Physician Fee Schedule, which includes a change in the Medicare anesthesia conversion factor effective January 1, 2010.

The national unadjusted Medicare anesthesia conversion factor for services provided from Jan. 1 – Feb. 28, 2010 would be $21.114. The corrections incorporate the CY 2010 anesthesia practice expense revisions.

Although the House and Senate negotiators are still hammering out their plans for healthcare reform, lawmakers and healthcare stakeholders are playing a numbers game: carefully eyeing when specific projects are to be implemented and gauging how they can meet the deadlines.

Under the proposed healthcare reforms before the House and the Senate, both have differing expectations, as well as differing deadlines, with some to take effect this year and others to continue through at least 2018.

A Senate plan to tax health insurance premiums by $6.7 billion annually is a terrible idea, says a large coalition of California medical groups who fear this tax would lead to less coordinated care in fee-for-service models—and away from integrated medicine systems—while hiking premium costs for the insured.

The United Nations health agency will review the way it dealt with the outbreak of swine flu once the pandemic has subsided, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a news briefing.

"Criticism is part of an outbreak cycle. We expect and indeed welcome criticism and the chance to discuss it," she said, adding the WHO's review would involve independent outside experts and its results would be made public.

Senate Democrats received some good news/bad news from two new studies issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" passed by the Senate on Dec. 24.

First, a Jan. 8 memo from CMS Chief Actuary Richard Foster finds that an additional 34 million people would be covered by 2019 from proposed reforms in the Senate healthcare reform bill—up from the 31 million projected last month by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that Medicaid programs in Tennessee and Pennsylvania will receive federal matching funds for state planning activities to implement the electronic health record incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Tennessee will receive approximately $2.7 million and Pennsylvania will receive $1.42 million.

EHRs are expected to improve the quality of healthcare for patients in Tennessee and Pennsylvania and make it easier for providers who are treating Medicaid patients to coordinate care.

BUFFALO, NY – Kaleida Health of Buffalo, N.Y., closed on a $100 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development insured mortgage loan to fund construction of a new global heart and vascular institute.

The $100,253,000 loan is Kaleida's fourth HUD mortgage loan.

Washington (CNN) -- Top Democrats are prepared to short-circuit the traditional legislative process and exclude their Republican counterparts during final congressional health care deliberations, senior Democratic sources have told CNN.

Democrats are trying to prevent the Republicans from using Senate rules to slow the push for final passage of a comprehensive reform bill, the sources added.

WASHINGTON – The American College of Cardiology has filed a lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius over pending Medicare physician payment cuts.

The suit, filed last week, is aimed at blocking the 2010 Medicare Physician Schedule, which is slated to go into effect on Jan. 15, 2010.

ACC officials say the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services' schedule change, which cuts Medicare reimbursements to cardiologists by almost 40 percent, is based on faulty data and will limit patient access to critical diagnostic tests.

The Florida ACC Chapter, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, Association of Black Cardiologists and Cardiology Advocacy Alliance have been named as co-plaintiffs.