Join your colleagues for the 2014 AHA Annual Membership Meeting May 4-7 in Washington, D.C!

Online registration is now open at the early bird rate of $725 for the regular meeting package or $875 including the American College of Healthcare Executives educational session.

Visit www.aha.org to view the full schedule of events and rates. While you’re there, register yourself – or your whole team – in just a few simple steps. Early bird rates expire March 21, so register today to take advantage.

KHA members will take this opportunity to meet with the Kentucky congressional delegation on May 6-7, and the KHA Legislative Committee will meet in Washington on May 6.

If you plan to attend and would like to stay at the Hotel Palomar with other KHA members, please contact Carol Walters at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via e-mail at cwalters@kyha.com).

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Each year, KHA recognizes an outstanding hospital trustee with its Health Care Governance Leadership Award during the KHA Annual Convention Awards Luncheon. This year’s Awards Luncheon will be held on May 9 at the Lexington Convention Center in Lexington.

Nomination criteria and a nominating form are available at http://www.new-kyha.com/Portals/5/NewsDocs/Award_Governance.pdf. Please return the form by February 21. Should you have any questions regarding the awards process, please contact Carol Walters at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via e-mail at cwalters@kyha.com).

AHA's Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine recently launched its 2014 Most Wired Survey, which hospitals can complete through March 15.

The annual survey measures information technology adoption, implementation and use in four areas: infrastructure; business and administrative management; clinical quality and safety; and clinical integration.

For details on this year’s survey, see the recent H&HN video or visit www.hhnmostwired.com.

The Kentucky Hospital Research and Education Foundation (KHREF) presents the 2014 ICD-10 Webinar Training Series. This webinar training series will offer three webinars designed to get coders prepared for the mandatory ICD-10 conversion on October 1.

Overall Objectives of the Webinar Series:

Understand how ICD-9-CM compares to ICD-10-CM Understand the structure and format of ICD-10-CM Review and Coding of Diagnosis Codes in Chapter 1 – 21 of the coding book  Online registration for the following sessions is available at: http://secure.kyha.com/meetingregistration.asp:

Part 1 Thursday, April 10 2:00 p.m. - 4:00p.m. (ET)   Part 2 Thursday, April 24 2:00 p.m. - 4:00p.m. (ET)   Part 3 Thursday, May 1 2:00 p.m. - 4:00p.m. (ET) Please view the brochure...

According to an AHA "Newsflash," on January 24, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified that hospitals can continue to use service vendors to assist them in making Medicaid presumptive eligibility determinations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Many hospitals use outside vendors to help with eligibility assessments and enrollment. CMS's announcement, which was welcomed by AHA, would still hold hospitals accountable for accurate presumptive eligibility determinations.

CMS issued the clarification in a series of FAQs on hospital presumptive eligibility. The FAQ on this issue can be found on page six.

REMINDER: CEO-signed Commitment Letters are due to the K-HEN team no later than January 31. Since K-HEN will need to provide a list of hospitals who have returned Commitment Letters on that day, please return your letter as soon as possible. Commitment letter packets were mailed to all participating hospitals’ CEOs, along with CEOs of hospitals who did not participate previously but are invited to join this year.

If any of you have any questions about participation, would like to have a phone meeting, or would like to meet in person to discuss, please contact Donna Meador at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via e-mail at dmeador@kyha.com).

National notifications regarding breaches in HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) seem to be occurring at an alarming rate despite the revamped federal HIPAA Omnibus Rule that holds covered entities and business associates more accountable for protecting patient data.

On January 30,  Health Enterprises Network will host a panel of experts who will discuss the impact of the regulatory changes that began in September 2013, what to expect from an audit, how to improve privacy and security at your organization, privacy and security issues related to mobile medical technologies and other real life risks that many organizations are struggling to address.

Date and Time Thursday, January 30 7:30 a.m. - 8:15 a.m. (ET) — Registration, Networking & Light Breakfast 8:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. — Program

Location The Nucleus, part of the Nucleus Innovation Park First Floor Conference Room 300 East Market Street Louisville

Registration $50

$10 for full-time students...

The Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services (DMS) has announced expanded services that are covered under Presumptive Eligibility (PE) as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Qualified hospitals will be allowed to determine eligibility for temporary coverage for those who do not have insurance coverage.

HP Enterprises will conduct webinars, in conjunction with DMS, for hospitals to become qualified in determining temporary eligibility under the PE program. The webinar is designed to offer instruction and assistance to providers in determining who is eligible for temporary coverage and how to submit a PE request. Your registration and completion of this training constitutes your election to make PE determinations.

Hospital chief executive officers are encouraged to forward this information to the appropriate staff members in their facility who will be screening for Medicaid eligibility. Please read the final regulation for additional details on PE.

Choose one of the three sessions below...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law March 2010. While most aspects of the law were not scheduled to begin until 2012, hospitals began feeling the effects early on due to the mandated reduction in Medicare payments. Hospitals are estimated to incur $155 billion in cuts over 10 years with Kentucky hospitals’ portion estimated at $2.1 billion. The year 2014 marks the full implementation of the ACA with the mandate that individuals be insured by January 1, 2014, or incur a penalty. There are many questions as to how the ACA will play out in the coming years and what impact it will have on Kentucky hospitals.

It is estimated there are 650,000 Kentuckians without insurance, with over 300,000 of the uninsured eligible for expanded Medicaid in the state. Kentucky chose to operate a state-run insurance market to assist uninsured individuals enrolling in Medicaid if eligible and for others to purchase insurance coverage. The Kentucky exchange (kynect) began operations on October 1, 2013, and...

KHA Members Only Event

The KHA Hospital Day at the Legislature will be held on Thursday, February 27 at the Frankfort Country Club:  

7:30 a.m.	Registration and Breakfast
8:00 a.m.	Meeting
10:15 a.m.	Meet with Legislators at Capitol (make your appointments with your legislators now)
12:00 p.m.	Luncheon with Legislators

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register that establishes national emergency preparedness requirements for Medicare and Medicaid providers and suppliers to ensure that they adequately plan for both natural and man-made disasters.

The proposed rule addresses emergency preparedness requirements that 17 provider and supplier types must meet in order to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

This proposed rule could have a significant impact on hospitals. For example, the rule includes language that relates to the behavior of the new electronic health record (EHR) systems during a disaster or emergency, and a requirement that EHR systems be redundantly backed up both in region and out of region.

KHA Emergency Preparedness Director Richard Bartlett has prepared resources for hospitals to educate themselves regarding the proposed changes and to prepare in case the rule is approved. Visit http://www.kyha.com/proposed-rule-change-on-cop-related-to-emergency-preparedness/...

The Brain Injury Alliance of Kentucky (BIAK) will host the 25th Annual Brain Injury Summit on Friday, March 7 at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington.

The Summit is designed to provide attendees with an understanding of the interdisciplinary advancements and strategies in the treatment of severe traumatic brain injury from the initial response, transportation to the trauma center, acute hospitalization, rehabilitation and return to the community. A well-qualified faculty of specialists will address ways the research evidence is integrated with their expertise and its practical value in clinical decision making.

For details and to register, view BIAK's brochure.

The Kentucky Hospital Research and Education Foundation (KHREF) will host two webinars in February for KHA members.

Inpatient versus Outpatient and Part B Inpatient Billing will be held February 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (ET). This program will help participants sort out the confusion surrounding when a patient is an inpatient vs. being an outpatient specific to billing and coding.

Physician Compensation in a Value-Based World will be held February 27 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (ET). As health care reimbursement transitions from volume to value based, it becomes essential for physician compensation plans to evolve in order to ensure success under changing financial incentives. The objectives of this program are to:

On Friday, January 10, the Kentucky Hospital Engagement Network (K-HEN) held a webinar to discuss hospital commitments for the 2014 extension of the HEN project. A recording of the webinar, along with a copy of the PowerPoint presentation and participation requirements document (regarding data) are available on the K-HEN website, www.k-hen.com.

Please note, the commitment form must be signed by each participating hospital's chief executive officer by January 31. K-HEN will send commitment packets (including the commitment form) to hospital CEOs early this week.  The packet will also include an outline of the data submission requirements, recommended measures and an outline of the data submission and performance incentive program. K-HEN will copy this information in an e-mail to hospital quality leaders.  System-level commitment forms will not be accepted by the Hospital Research and Education Trust (HRET) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), so the forms must be signed by individual hospital CEOs....

KHA MEMBERS ONLY EVENT!

KHA will host District Meetings in February and March as listed below. An agenda and registration form are available at http://www.new-kyha.com/Portals/5/NewsDocs/DistrictMeetingsFebruary2014.pdf. Make your plans to attend and register today.

February 19 9:45 a.m. (CT) Twin Lakes District Baptist Health Madisonville Lowman Trover Conference Center – 8th Floor 200 Clinic Drive Madisonville    February 21 9:45 a.m. (ET) Cumberland District Baptist Health Corbin One Trillium Way Corbin March 4 9:45 AM (ET)...

AHA will host an ACA Enrollment Virtual Town Hall Meeting for Health Care Providers on Thursday, January 16.

There are four different calls to provide opportunities for more people to participate. Click on the time that best suits your schedule to register:

9:00-10:00 a.m. EST 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST  4:00-5:00 p.m. EST  9:00-10:00 p.m. EST  Hear about how individual providers, clinics and hospitals can play a central role in getting America covered. 

Featured...

The KHA Compensation Survey is underway. KHA has sent an invitation to each hospital staff member who is usually responsible for the completion of this survey. If staff responsibilities have changed, please notify Compdata Surveys of the newly designated staff member.

This year, the Workforce Survey will be combined with the Compensation Survey to reduce paperwork for hospitals. To ease survey completion, your 2013 responses have been pre-populated in this year's questionnaire if you submitted your data electronically last year. The submission deadline is Friday, January 31, and the results will be released in April. 

Remember, you can report salaries for each facility type (e.g., physician clinic, long-term care). Reporting your data this way allows KHA to differentiate salaries by facility for your benefit.  

To access the survey, visit www.mycompdatasurveys.com.

Passwords do not change from survey...

Last week, KHA e-mailed the most recent Pay for Performance (P4P) quality reports to hospitals. The Quarterly Update is based on Hospital Compare’s Quarterly (third quarter 2013) Data Release. 

This analysis is designed to provide hospitals with a comparative review over time of the quality data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and published on the Hospital Compare website. All of the sources, time periods and measures analyzed are defined in the the included description document. Hospital performance, U.S. average, and U.S. top 10 performance performance are from the quarterly updates to the CMS Hospital Compare quality database from December 2010 (fourth quarter 2010) through December 2013 (fourth quarter 2013) when available. The measure collection dates related to these database updates are listed directly on the report. 

Please note that this analysis evaluates performance scores for ALL hospitals included in CMS' Hospital Compare database regardless of estimated Value-Based...

If a federally declared disaster occurs in Kentucky, non-profit and government health care facilities may be eligible for some reimbursement from FEMA via the Kentucky Emergency Management Recovery Branch (KyEM). To prepare for such events, it is important for your facility to have a financial or emergency preparedness staff member trained in advance in order to understand the process and be ready to act.

Note that for-profit facilities may be able to receive reimbursement for some expenditures if they work with their local government.

Jessica Mitchell, recovery branch manager of the The Kentucky Emergency Management Recovery Branch, will teach an Applicant Agent Certification Program on January 31 in Louisville. This certification will enable designated Applicant Agents to maximize federal disaster-related funding associated with the FEMA Public Assistance Program. Certification will be awarded to those who successfully complete the Applicant Agent training. Certified Applicant Agents will be...

With the Kentucky General Assembly quickly approaching, please take note of the following information about the upcoming session and KHA activities.

The Kentucky General Assembly convenes for a sixty-day session on Tuesday, January 7, and will meet until adjournment on April 15. A copy of the 2014 Legislative Calendar is available at http://www.lrc.ky.gov/sch_vist/14RS_calendar.pdf. 

The KHA Hospital Day at the Legislature will be held on Thursday, February 27 at the Frankfort Country Club:  

7:30 a.m.

8:00 a.m.

10:15 a.m.

12:00 p.m.

Registration and Breakfast Meeting Meet with Legislators at Capitol (make your appointments with your legislators now) Luncheon with Legislators If you need overnight hotel accommodations, please call one...

The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Kentucky Chapter Winter Education Institute will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Louisville on January 23-24. Attendees can earn 12.6 CPE credits and will learn from a panel of six Kentucky hospital chief executive officers about Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals (LTACHs) and how utilizing the LTACH level of care can improve patient outcomes and a community hospital’s bottom line. Attendees will learn how LTACHs are quality, cost-effective alternatives to long stays in a community hospital ICU, and the importance of managing average length of stay (ALOS) for patients who will move to post-acute care (PAC) providers. 

There are eight LTACHs in Kentucky. They are acute care hospitals, treating critically ill patients who are stable, but still very sick with complex medical conditions. LTACHs offer slower and more supervised care for the sickest of patients; about 2 percent of all Medicare patients are discharged to an LTACH where a team of doctors and nurses can continue to take care of the patient's complex needs. LTACHs are not nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). 

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Bill Conn, KHA President from 1976-1995, passed away Sunday, December 29 after a lengthy illness. He is survived by his wife, Jan, and children Richard Conn and Debbie Bryan. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Lisa Kincaid.

Bill Conn joined the staff of the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) in 1972 as Associate Executive Director, following several years of service with the Kentucky Department for Mental Health where he served as administrator of several of the state behavioral health hospitals and as Deputy Commissioner. In 1976, Conn was named President of KHA where he served until his retirement in 1995. During his years with KHA he was responsible for establishing the Kentucky Hospital Service Corporation and programs to assist hospitals in the areas of malpractice, workers’ compensation and employee health insurance. He received KHA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1982.

Visitation is Friday, January 3 after 5PM at Hicks-Vaughn Funeral Home in Monticello, KY with...

In order to serve its members better, KHA is always striving to find new ways to keep the membership informed of the latest news and information affecting hospitals across Kentucky. To meet this goal, KHA is changing how this news is delivered.

To make sure you receive the news as it happens, KHA will now be posting stories directly to a news page on its website,www.kyha.com. The stories will be posted right away, and you will be notified via the daily KHA Health e-News e-mail anytime an article is published. There will be a link in that e-mail if you want to read the article in full. This new format will take the place of the current CEO Briefing.

If there is urgent or sensitive information, chief executive officers will receive an e-mail right away.

Finally, once a month, hospital and system chief executive officers will receive an e-mail of the most important issues on which KHA is focusing.

If you have any questions, please...