The Texas Hospital Association has established the THA Hospital Employee Assistance Fund to help hospital employees who experienced significant property loss or damage because of Hurricane Harvey. All funds will be used to directly assist hospital employees in Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated disaster areas; administrative services are being provided in kind so that 100 percent of donated funds will be used to assist hospital employees. AHA has contributed an initial $50,000 to get the fund started. For more information or to make a donation, visit https://www.tha.org/Harvey/ReliefFund. AHA is working with THA on other ways hospitals and health systems can assist their colleagues in Texas and will share more information when available.

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Tim Trottier, chief executive officer of Spring View Hospital, as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee.  Trottier was nominated by Linda Hunter, the facility's chief nursing officer, for his efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. According to Hunter, Trottier was instrumental in helping Spring View improve quality, safety and satisfaction within the hospital. His achievements include improved patient, physician and employee satisfaction and decreased patient harms. 

To demonstrate his commitment to quality and patient safety he became a “Certified Professional in Patient Safety” CPPS. He most recently engaged a Patient Family Advisory Board (PFAB) that will lead the hospital’s mission to “Make Communities Healthier.”

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KHA is pleased to announce that the Hospital Longitudinal Analysis Reports are available for Fourth Quarter 2016 and First Quarter 2017. Participating hospitals received a secure email yesterday with two reports – the Kentucky State Report and a hospital-specific Readmissions Report.

KHA will host a webinar to discuss how to interpret the reports: 

DataGen Readmissions Demo for the Kentucky Hospital Association Thursday, August 31 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. (ET)

Webinar link: https://datagen.webex.com/datagen/j.php?MTID=mf832dc9a5a1c36fa48df83d7ccdd7e2a Meeting...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to cut payments for most “separately payable Part B drugs” purchased under the 340B program and dispensed to Medicare hospital outpatients in its Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) calendar year (CY) 2018 proposed rule. “Separately payable Part B drugs” generally refer to those that have per-day costs about the packaging threshold, pass through drugs and certain antiemetics. CMS proposes payment at Average Sales Price (ASP) minus 22.5%, rather than ASP plus 6% (the current payment rate), for a nearly 30% cut.

Yesterday, KHA sent the chief financial officer of each 340B hospital paid under the OPPS a brief survey regarding the impact of this payment cut. KHA will summarize this data in support of its comments to CMS (due September 11)  opposing these cuts. 

CEOs, please encourage your CFO to respond to the survey by Wednesday, September 6.

If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Galvagni at KHA...

Governor Matt Bevin was joined by state legislators and officials from St. Elizabeth Florence on Wednesday, as he ceremonially signed recently enacted Senate Bill 42. 

Sponsored by Senator John Schickel, SB 42 permits a law enforcement officer to make an arrest for assault in the 4th degree, when the violation occurs in a hospital and the officer has probable cause.

Pictured above are (left to right) Representative Diane St. Onge, Representative 
Sal Santoro, a city police department representative, Senator John Schickel, St. Elizabeth Healthcare President Garren Colvin, a sheriff's department representative and Governor Bevin.

What happens when a computer or the internet or your phone system are not working? Does each department know what its critical functions are and how to continue working? Is your EMR really the first system that must be restored?

To answer these questions, KHA will host a webinar to discuss Business Impact Analysis and Contingency Planning on Wednesday, October 4. For details, view the brochure.

Online registration is now open. If you have any questions, please contact Sharon Perkins at KHA (sperkins@kyha.com).

The Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services (KY DMS) is clarifying coverage for early elective deliveries (EED) including non-medically necessary inductions and cesarean deliveries. Claims submitted for labor inductions or cesarean sections on or before 39 weeks gestation that are not properly documented as medically necessary will be denied by Kentucky Medicaid including Kentucky Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs).

KY DMS's goals are to: 1) guide providers and hospitals to sound practice recommendations made by AGOG; 2) reduce morbidity in neonates from birth trauma and fetal immaturity; 3) reduce non-medically necessary deliveries less than 39 weeks gestation and; 4) encourage greater collaborations between hospitals and their physicians in developing quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving birth outcomes in Kentucky.

Medicaid delivery claims submitted, with dates of service on or after 9/1/2017, from enrolled hospitals and practitioners for elective inductions...

Yesterday, KHA sent the new Hospital CEO Dashboard Report to all Kentucky hospital CEOs via email.

The CEO Dashboard contains:

Hospital Utilization Data  Hospital Physician Data (Attending and Surgical)  Hospital Product Line Distribution  Financial Data (Payer Information)  Quality Data  Workforce Data Please note, KHA will start collecting Referring Physician data as of October 1, 2017, and future reports you show Referring and Surgical Physician data.

The data sources for this report include KHA InfoSuite, Kentucky Quality Counts (K-HIIN) data, Hospital Compare and KHA Annual Workforce Survey data from calendar year of 2016.

Hospital CEOS will receive updated reports on a quarterly basis. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the data, please contact Chuck Warnick (cwarnick@kyha.com) or Melanie Moch ( mmoch@kyha.com) at KHA.

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Nurse Leaders across Kentucky are invited to attend the 13th Annual KONL Fall Leadership Conference, “Navigating Climate Change: Future of Healthcare and Nursing in an Ever-Changing Environment,” September 21-22 in Louisville!  

The opening speaker is Jo Ann Webb, the Vice President of Federal Affairs from the American Organization of Nurse Executives, in Washington, DC. Other topics include APRN Roles, Excitement and Innovation from Nursing’s C-suite, Behavioral Change with Performance Improvement and more. 

Attendees will learn together and network with nursing leadership peers from across the state. In addition, CNOs are invited to a networking breakfast during the Conference to discuss hot topics for nursing senior leaders.  

Registration and agenda details are available online at http://www.cvent.com/events/konl-13th-annual-leadership-development-conference-navigating-climate-change-future-of-healthcare-an/event-summary-f25098ae21404135838c469c03734e59.aspx.

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This week, KHA and the K-HIIN team are conducting a two-day TeamSTEPPS program at Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester. Twenty-seven hospital employees from Clark Regional Medical Center and Bourbon Community Hospital are attending the program. TeamSTEPPS is a program of teamwork tools aimed at optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals. 

If you are interested in learning more about TeamSTEPPS or if you are interested in hosting a program in your facility, please contact Donna Meador at KHA (dmeador@kyha.com).

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Amy Griffith, RN, from Rockcastle Regional Hospital as the newest Patient Safety Hero Awardee. Griffith was nominated by Tammy Brock, the hospital's quality/patient safety director, for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. Brock noted that Griffith has taken the lead role in reducing readmissions in the organization and discharge phone calls are a huge part of that. 

Griffith was instrumental in instituting a new discharge call system, training and implementing the system, analyzing the data from the system and more. Griffith discovered the hospital's patients did not understand the medication sheet that was sent home with them, so she worked to create a better discharge medication sheet. She has taken over the role as a "care manager" and makes sure the discharged patients have everything they need to be successful at home. In one instance, a wife could not get her husband to his follow-up doctor's appointment, so Griffith worked with the doctor's office and the office's nurse practitioner was able to make a home visit.  

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The Kentucky Hospital Association filed a motion to intervene in the Kentucky Hospital Cooperative, Inc. (KYHC) liquidation. The Association contracted with Frost Brown Todd Attorneys to serve as outside counsel. The firm recently provided a proceedings update so that KHA members are fully informed on the current state of the case.

If you have any questions, please contact Greg Mitchell, Esq., or Shana Nanney, senior paralegal, at Frost Brown Todd (859-244-7558).

KHA and the Kentucky Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (K-HIIN) recently recognized Donna Davis, chief nursing officer at Georgetown Community Hospital with a Patient Safety Hero. Davis was nominated by Georgetown's CEO William Haugh for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. 

Per Haugh, Davis was the first CNO within LifePoint Health to become a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) by the National Patient Safety Board. In 2016, she led way for Georgetown Community Hospital to reduce the overall HEN HAC rate to 3.719 per 1,000 patient days, which was a 35% reduction from 2015. She also lead the organization to an overall readmission rate of 4.1% in 2016, which is below the national average and the 2015 GCH rate of 5.5%. Finally,...

Twenty-one Kentucky hospitals were were recognized in U.S. News and World Report's latest rankings of the best hospitals in the country. The top seven hospitals in Kentucky (according to the magazine's recent ratings) were:

UK Chandler Medical Center, Lexington Nationally ranked in four specialties: Adult Cancer, Adult Diabetes and Endocrinology, Geriatrics and Adult Neurology and Neurosurgery High Performing in 8 Procedures/Conditions St. Elizabeth Edgewood High Performing in 8 Procedures/Conditions Baptist Health Lexington High Performing in 9 Procedures/Conditions Norton Hospital, Louisville High Performing in 6 Procedures/Conditions Baptist Health Louisville High Performing in 5 Procedures/Conditions Jewish Hospital, Louisville High Performing in 3 Procedures/Conditions Owensboro Health Regional Hospital High Performing in 3 Procedures/Conditions Fourteen additional Kentucky hospitals were recognized as High Performing facilities...

From Politico Pro:

People living in poverty-stricken Appalachia have a lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant mortality than anywhere else in the country, according to a new study in Health Affairs.

Researchers examining life expectancy rates covering 2009 to 2013 found that among both men and women in Appalachia, the average life expectancy was 76.9 compared with 79.3 in the rest of the country. They concluded that the association between poverty and life expectancy was more pronounced in the region than elsewhere in the United States.

The biggest factors contributing to the life expectancy gap were cardiovascular disease, unintentional injuries including drug overdose, and cancer, the study found.

Smoking-related diseases accounted for more than half of the life expectancy...

Did you, or someone you know, make it a professional goal to sit for the ACHE Board of Governors (BOG) Exam? The Kentucky Chapter of ACHE is sponsoring a day-long BOG Prep Course to help you become board certified. Many health care leaders and ACHE fellows have agreed to teach on the material you will be tested on in the ten knowledge areas. 

Date: Friday, August 25 Time: 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (ET) (lunch provided) Location: Harshaw Trane 12700 Plantside Drive Louisville, KY 40299 Cost: Free to all members and anyone interested in joining ACHE

 
Fill in the registration form to reserve your seat.

As hospitals and their staffs work to assure that Medicaid patients get the care they need, those efforts often involve challenging managed care organization (MCO) medical necessity denials. New federal behavioral health parity rules are taking effect this fall to help assure that patients are not shortchanged in obtaining psychiatric and substance use disorder treatment. Under the new rules, MCOs are required to provide coverage for behavioral health services as generously as for physical health. For example, MCOs cannot impose treatment limitations on access to behavioral health services which do not apply to physical health. 

KHA is sponsoring a conference on August 18 in Lexington on Behavioral Health Parity, to explain the new rules and help hospitals and their staffs be able to identify potential parity violations. 

The Kentucky MCOs and the Department for Medicaid Services will be attending this conference – therefore, hospitals should be in attendance to have the same understanding of the new rules. The conference will feature national and state experts....

Registration is now available for the KHA Fall Conference on September 19 in Louisville. The KHA Committee on Volunteers is excited to offer this program to the auxiliary officers, auxiliary members, volunteers, directors of volunteers and gift shop managers.

Registration includes a continental breakfast, lunch buffet, private showing of “The Greatest Race” movie played in their 360 theater and a self-guided tour of the Derby Museum.

Don’t forget to be thinking about the silent auction items to bring with you. Each item should be valued at $10 or more. The more items you bring, the more who can participate. 

View the brochure for details, to register and to sign up for the silent auction.

If you have any questions, please contact Pam Kirchem at KHA (pkirchem@kyha.com).

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On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Medicare inpatient hospital prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule for fiscal year 2018. This rule will significantly change the methodology for making Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments. The new methodology will be phased in over three years. Preliminary estimates are that the new methodology will reduce Medicare DSH payments to Kentucky hospitals by about $77 million when the new method is fully in place in fiscal year (FY) 2020. KHA filed comments strongly objecting to these changes. Please note, this methodology only affects hospitals paid on a DRG basis, who also qualify for Medicare DSH.

Summary of Medicare DSH Changes

Hospitals that qualify for Medicare DSH payments will continue to receive 25 percent of the Medicare DSH funds under the pre-FY 2014 DSH formula, known as the empirically justified DSH payments. The remaining 75 percent of payments, which are paid from a...

KHA's latest Sponsorship Opportunities brochure is now available. Learn how your company can reach and network with Kentucky's hospital decision makers.

Sponsorships include opportunities at KHA's signature event, the 89th Annual Convention — May 10-11, 2018.

There are several different sponsorship levels to meet your needs. If you have any questions, please contact Pam Kirchem at KHA (pkirchem@kyha.com).

The KHA District Meetings for Fall 2017 are scheduled. Please mark your calendar and save the date for these important events. NOTE THE DATE CHANGES BELOW. Registration will start at 9:45 a.m. local time, the meetings will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. local time and lunch will be provided. Additional details will be available soon.

October 13  Ohio Valley  KHA Headquarters Louisville		October 19  Blue Grass District  Saint Joseph Hospital Lexington
October 20 Cumberland District  Baptist Health Richmond		October 30 Twin Lakes District  Owensboro Health Regional Hospital

If you have any questions, contact Pam Kirchem at KHA (pkirchem@kyha.com).