KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Bronze Sponsor TruBridge!

TruBridge delivers effective business, consulting and managed IT services along with an end to end Revenue Cycle Management solution ranging from an HFMA Peer Reviewed ® product to complete business office outsourcing.

For more information, visit the TruBridge website at http://www.trubridge.com/.

To become a sponsor, contact Claire Arant at KHA (carant@kyha.com).

This morning, the American Hospital Association (AHA) and other national organizations, along with individual hospitals from Nebraska, Missouri and California, filed suit against the federal government challenging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule mandating that hospitals disclose their privately negotiated rates with commercial health insurers.

Per an AHA email, “The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for relief by making the case that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lacks statutory authority to require and enforce a provision that mandates public disclosure of individually negotiated rates between commercial health insurers and hospitals. Additionally, the lawsuit makes the argument that the provision violates the First Amendment by compelling the public disclosure of individual rates negotiated between hospitals and insurers in a manner that will confuse patients and unduly burden hospitals.”

See AHA’s press release...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Bronze Sponsor Threshold Visitor Management Systems!

Threshold develops visitor management products to support your security protocols.

For more information, visit the Threshold Visitor Management Systems website at https://www.thresholdsecurity.com/.

To become a sponsor, contact Claire Arant at KHA (carant@kyha.com).

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Bronze Sponsor and Quality Conference Sponsor Columbia HeartSource!

Columbia HeartSource is a management services group at Columbia University Medical Center that specialized in helping hospitals build new cardiovascular programs. Their Services, delivered by clinical departments at Columbia University Medical Center, draw upon experts in virtually every field of cardiovascular medicine & cardiothoracic surgery.

For more information, visit the Columbia HeartSource website at http://www.columbiaheartsource.org/....

KHA will host a special membership meeting via webinar on Tuesday, December 3, at 11:00 AM (ET) to discuss strategies to preserve 340B reimbursement under Medicaid. Hospital chief executive officers and chief financial officers should have received an Alert from KHA this morning via email with call details and additional information. If you did not receive the email, please contact Debbie Bonn at KHA (dbonn@kyha.com). Please make plans to participate in this webinar!

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services Released the following statement this morning.

Following a request for proposal (RFP) process and a state procurement procedure through the Finance and Administration Cabinet, the Department for Medicaid Services (DMS) within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) has been notified of five new statewide contract awards for managed care organizations (MCOs). Aetna Better Health of Kentucky, Humana Health Plan, Inc., Molina Healthcare of Kentucky, UnitedHealthcare DBA UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kentucky and WellCare Health Insurance of Kentucky have been selected to serve Kentucky’s approximately 1.3 million Medicaid beneficiaries beginning July 1, 2020, when the current contracts expire.

New with this procurement, one MCO, WellCare, has been awarded the contract to serve all children in Kentucky’s foster care system, including some children who have been adopted from foster care, as well as children dually committed to...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Diamond Sponsor Collective Medical!

The Collective Medical Platform provides care histories and collaborative plans of care in real time. Better help your patients—especially those with unique needs—by unifying hospitals and care teams using these shared insights.

For more information, visit the Collective Medical website at https://collectivemedical.com/....

Are you a Hospital Recruiter looking to network and learn from other hospital recruiters around the state?

The Kentucky Association for Healthcare Recruitment (KAHCR), affiliated with the National Association for Healthcare Recruitment (NAHCR), invites you to its next meeting at the Kentucky Hospital Association in Louisville. Attendance is Free!

The KAHCR chapter membership includes health care recruitment professionals across the State of Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

Great education awaits and your KAHCR peers are very collaborative on the recruiting efforts that work well in their part of the state, and they often share policies and procedures. Your networking time here is sure to bring you great ideas and the presentations and educational content will save you time in the long-run.

The Kentucky chapter's mission is to provide a forum for those professionals engaged in the recruitment of health care personnel for their institutions, through which programs...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Bronze Sponsor Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp)!

LabCorp is a leading global life sciences company that is deeply integrated in guiding patient care through its comprehensive clinical laboratory and end-to-end drug development services. Employing nearly 60,000 employees worldwide, the company’s mission is to improve health and improve lives by delivering world-class diagnostic solutions, bringing innovative medicines to patients faster and using technology to improve the delivery of care.

For more information, visit the LabCorp website at https://www.labcorp.com/....

Hospitals should have already received a notice indicating the expected amount of State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2020 Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) distribution. The allotment for the pools assume full funding by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — it anticipates that the cuts scheduled for this year will be permanently delayed until a future period.If the cuts are not delayed, the total funding will be reduced by approximately 37%.

For the acute care pool, no monies were transferred from the University pool this year (which results in a reduction in the pool compared to last year).

Disbursements are expected on November 27, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact Carl Herde at KHA (cherde@kyha.com).

KHA is excited to announce the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved Kentucky's submission of a proposal for the Hospital Rate Improvement Program (HRIP) — a delivery system and payment initiative under Mediaid managed care plan contracts.

According to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), they have included a request for the funds with the Cabinet's draw from CMS that will happen in the first quarter of calendar year 2020. KHA expects the review of data files will be finalized in the next several weeks. Once these are approved, KHA hopes CHFS will commence its official process in January or February.

See the CMS approval letter for the official announcement.

Do not wait. Update your patients' records and use Medicare Beneficiary identifiers (MBIs) now, before you are busy with other patient insurance changes in January.

CMS encourages people with Medicare to carry their cards with them since they removed the Social Security Number-based number; if your patients do not bring their Medicare cards with them:

Give them the "Get Your New Medicare Card" flyer in English (or Spanish)....

After months of discussions with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) via the KHA Medicaid Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meetings, monthly Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) issue list meetings, individual meetings with CHFS and presentations to the Medicaid Advisory Committee (MAC), the Cabinet has made a final decision regarding sepsis.

On Wednesday, Department for Medicaid Services (DMS) Medical Director Judy Ann Theriot released a memo detailing coding and reimbursement guidelines for sepsis. CHFS will follow the CMS DRG and ICD-10 definitions of sepsis. MCOs are directed to "...base utilization management for sepsis on sepsis-2 criteria until such time that CMS adopts sepsis-3 criteria."

View the memo for more details.

In December, KHA is hosting a series of webinars on updates to various CMS rules and regulations with popular presenter Sue Dill Calloway. Only two webinars are left this month. These webinars will fill up fast, so register early!

December 12 Discharge Planning: Compliance with the New CMS Hospital & CAH CoPs Due to the importance of this topic, this webinar will be presented twice on this date: 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, ET Brochure Online Registration and 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM, ET Brochure...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Platinum Sponsor the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters!

The Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters (IKORCC) represents more than 32,000 professional tradespeople in 33 locals in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and parts of West Virginia and Tennessee. A proud affiliate of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which has a century-plus tradition of representing the best of the building trades, the council works in partnership with more than 30,000 contractors, helping them find the best possible talent for their projects.

For more information,...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Platinum Sponsor Republic Bank!

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, with over 44 banking centers across five states. Republic Bank is one of the largest locally owned community banks.

For more information, visit the Republic Bank website at https://www.republicbank.com.

To become a sponsor, contact Claire Arant at KHA (carant@kyha.com).

Earlier today, KHA President Nancy Galvagni and Barbourville ARH Hospital Community Chief Executive Officer Charles Lovell, FACHE testified before the Kentucky Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Committee in Frankfort. The two discussed the pressures facing Kentucky's rural hospitals.

Their testimony covered the importance of Kentucky's rural hospitals, risks of hospital closures, the financial stability of rural health and cuts to hospitals. They went on to identify ways Kentucky could help alleviate some of the stresses hospitals are currently facing.

View the PowerPoint presentation for today's testimony for full details.

On Friday, November 15, the Kentucky Society for Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing (KSHPRM) held its annual Thoroughbred Awards. The awards luncheon, held in conjunction with the KSHRPRM fall conference at The Kentucky Castle in Versailles, honored and recognized excellent work throughout the commonwealth in the areas of health care marketing and public relations.

Organizations were eligible to submit entries in 34 categories ranging from television advertising to direct mail design, community events and social media campaigns. This year, entries were judged by the Louisiana Society for Marketing and Public Relations. In total, 113 entries were submitted for consideration. Entries receiving 70 to 76 total points earned a Certificate of Merit, while those receiving 77 total points and higher earned Thoroughbred...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Diamond Sponsor Portola Pharmaceuticals!

Portola Pharmaceuticals is a global, commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics that could significantly advance the fields of thrombosis and other hematologic conditions. The Company's first two commercialized products are Andexxa® [coagulation factor Xa (recombinant), inactivated-zhzo], marketed in Europe as Ondexxya® (andexanet alfa), and Bevyxxa® (betrixaban). The...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Bronze Sponsor Concord Medical Group!

Concord Medical Group is a Texas-based, physician-owned and operated organization that provides quality hospital management and staffing solutions.

For more information, visit the Concord Medical Group website at https://concordmedicalgroup.com/.

To become a sponsor, contact Claire Arant at KHA (carant@kyha.com)....

On November 8, the Lexington Herald-Leader published an article written by reporter Alex Acquisto (Link to article - available to subscribers) covering the response of hospitals to the opioid epidemic in Kentucky.

The extensive article profiled the work at St. Claire Hospital in Morehead, and its ER medical director Dr. Philip Overall. The department's policy includes no longer using opioids as a “first line therapy for pain control...In 2017, a year after changes were instituted, the rate of patients leaving [St. Claire's] ER with an opioid dropped by more than two thirds, to under 4 percent, where it has hovered since. Of the 2,413 patients who visited the ER in July, only 82 — about 3 percent — left with a prescription."

The article continued with interviews of Dr. Phillip Chang and Dr. Doug Oyler of UK HealthCare on their work with KHA's Kentucky Statewide Opioid Stewardship...

On November 8, Garren Colvin, CEO of St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Edgewood and 2019-2020 Chair of the KHA Board, was appointed by Governor Matt Bevin as a member of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Board of Directors. He will represent members at-large and serve for a term expiring May 15, 2022.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Board of Directors advances and upholds the Foundation’s charitable mission of addressing unmet health care needs of Kentuckians and is responsible for the financial, program and policy affairs of the Foundation.

 

At KHA's Health Care Leadership Conference, the KHA membership approved the 2020 Legislative Priorities for the upcoming General Assembly Session.

This year's main priorities include:

On November 8, the KHA Health Care Leadership Conference brought Kentucky’s political leaders together with hospital leaders from throughout the state to learn about the issues that will affect hospitals in 2020. Members heard from Kentucky's newly elected Attorney General as well as state senators and representatives about upcoming legislation and plans for the new year. The media panel provided an interesting and informative analysis of the recent elections, which provided great insight into the political climate of the commonwealth.

KHA members also approved the Association’s legislative priorities for the upcoming session of the Kentucky...

The Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) has two more educational events scheduled for 2019 where members can earn face-to-face credits.

On November 14, earn 1.5 credit hours by attending a panel on Career planning, coaching, mentoring, and managing professional development discussion with industry professionals at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences. Visit the online registration page for more details.

On November 22, another panel will explore Disruptive innovation to improve patient outcomes for 1.5 credit hours at the St. Elizabeth Training and Education Center in Erlanger. Details are available for this...

KHA is grateful for the support of its event sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of events like A Day for Infection Preventionists. Please join KHA in thanking event sponsor Stevens Moon & Associates LLC / Indigo Clean.

Stevens-Moon proudly represents and distributes for many leading medical manufacturers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. Their products include Indigo Clean — Continuous Environmental Disinfection.

For more information, visit the Stevens Moon website at http://www.stevensmoon.com/.

To become a sponsor,...

KHA is grateful for the support of its Annual Sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of services. Please join KHA in thanking Gold Sponsor HSG!

HSG builds high-performing physician networks so health systems can address complex changes with confidence. Whether you are improving your employed network, aligning with private physicians, building your strategy or wrestling with the impact of value-based care, HSG provides resources for you. This is all they focus on and can deliver insightful and innovative solutions with great results.

For more information, visit the HSG website at https://hsgadvisors.com/.

...

KHA is grateful for the support of its event sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of events like A Day for Infection Preventionists. Please join KHA in thanking event sponsor Focus Healthcare.

Focus Healthcare provides medical products for infection prevention.

For more information, visit the Focus Healthcare website at https://www.focushealthcareproducts.com/.

To become a sponsor, contact Claire Arant at KHA (carant@kyha.com).

The submission deadline for the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF), Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) and Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) has been extended to November 18. Assessment data for IRFs, LTCHs and SNFs, and CDC data for IRFs and LTCHs submitted April 1 to June 30 (Q2) of calendar year (CY) 2019 are due with this deadline.

All data must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on November 18, 2019.

The lists of measures required for this deadline are found on the CMS QRP websites:

IRF Quality Reporting Data Submission Deadlines...

KHA is grateful for the support of its event sponsors! Through their generous donations, KHA is better able to support its members and provide a wide array of events like A Day for Infection Preventionists. Please join KHA in thanking event sponsor Philips.

Philips believes there’s always a way to make life better. IntelliSpace Epidemiology is a new decision support tool that aims to improve the efficiency and accuracy of hospital infection prevention teams. It combines clinical correlates, pathogen genomics and microbiology results to identify HAI clusters and suggest infection sources.

For more information, visit the Philips website at https://www.usa.philips.com/.

To...