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ACTION NEEDED: PROTECT CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITALS!
Background: The Critical Access Hospital program is a lifeline for 38 rural hospitals in our state. These small, rural hospitals have high volumes of Medicare, Medicaid, and uninsured patients. "Critical Access" designation provides them cost-based reimbursement for their Medicare and Medicaid patients. These hospitals are an important component of Washington’s health care system. They serve rural communities and stabilize patients for transport to larger urban facilities.
Both the federal and state governments are considering making significant cuts to the Critical Access Hospital program. The Health Care Authority’s recent list of proposed cuts includes a $22 million reduction in Medicaid payments to Critical Access Hospitals. (This is a bigger cut than originally estimated; the Authority made a miscalculation.) When federal Medicaid matching funds are added in, the total loss is $44 million. This is an average cut of 48 percent of Medicaid payments. A cut this size is significant for Washington’s rural hospitals and will greatly impact the services they provide. Enacting the cuts would also mean the loss of many hospital and health care jobs in rural communities statewide where the hospital is often the largest employer.
Hospital-Specific Impact: WSHA has calculated the impact of the proposed state cuts. Click here to see them.
Action Needed: Please contact the Governor and your state legislators and urge them to protect Critical Access Hospital funding. We urge all hospitals to make this contact, not just Critical Access Hospitals. Our state health care system functions best when there is a strong network of hospitals working together to ensure appropriate care for every patient. A breakdown in the Critical Access Hospital network will impact all hospitals in Washington State.
Message: “Please make preserving Critical Access Hospital funding a high priority as you develop the state’s budget. This funding is a lifeline for many of our small, rural hospitals. Without it, hospitals will be forced to cut services and lay off staff, which will have a major impact on their local economies. There will also be a tremendous impact on our rural residents who will have to travel further for care and whose health will suffer as a result. Our state benefits from a strong network of hospitals working together to ensure appropriate care for every patient. Our entire health care system will suffer without this important source of care.”
Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP News From Medical News Today
Latest Health News and Medical News posted throughout the day, every day.
Summary1 - National Study Shows Majority Of Self-Harming Adolescents Don't Receive A Mental Health Assessment During Emergency Room Visit
2 - Going To Physician Visits With Older Loved Ones Could Improve Care
3 - Medicare Plans Recruit Healthy Seniors By Offering Gym Benefits
4 - ED Eye Care In Florida - A Payment Review
5 - Dilated Eye Exams For Medicare Beneficiaries Cost Effective, USA
6 - Kaiser Permanente Study Finds Continuous Health Coverage Essential For Patients Managing Diabetes
7 - Study Of Medicare Patients With PAD Helps Consumers Navigate Medical Provider And Treatment Choice
8 - "It's The Economy" - Say Medicare Beneficiaries
9 - High-Risk Pregnancies - Telemedicine Can Save $186 Million In Medicaid Expenditure
10 - Medicare And Private Insurance Spending Similar Throughout Texas
11 - The Academy Of Nutrition And Dietetics Advocates For Expanded Nutritional Coverage Under Medicare
12 - Overall Hospital Admission Rates In US Linked With High Rates Of Readmission
13 - Not All NJ Youngsters Are Equal When It Comes To Use Of Dental Services
14 - First-Of-Its-Kind Study Finds Public Health Insurance Coverage For Infants Is More Comprehensive And Costs Less Than Private Plans
15 - Many Women Not Receiving Recommended Breast Cancer Adjuvant Treatment
16 - High Level Of Waste In Health Spending, Says Medicare And Medicaid Boss
17 - Younger Americans' Health Disparity Gets Worse
18 - Nation's For-Profit Nursing Homes Provide Poor Quality Of Care, Low Staffing
19 - Obesity Counseling - Medicare To Add Coverage
20 - Economic Savings With Tobacco Control Programs
21 - Statement On Dr. Donald Berwick's Departure As Administrator Of The Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services
22 - Free Guided Care Training And Tools Available For Accountable Care Organizations Seeking To Be Part Of Medicare Shared Savings Program
23 - "Don't Force Healthcare On Us" Say American People
24 - Heart Failure A Greater Risk For Low-Income Older Adults
25 - The Future Of Kidney Disease Care
Items
A national study of Medicaid data shows most young people who present to emergency departments with deliberate self-harm are discharged to the community, without receiving an emergency mental health assessment. Even more, a roughly comparable proportion of these patients receive no outpatient mental health care in the following month...
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PST
Family companions who routinely accompany older adults to physician office visits could be helpful to health care quality improvement efforts, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health...
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PST
Because healthy enrollees cost them less, Medicare Advantage plans would profit from selecting seniors based on their health, but Medicare strictly forbids practices such as denying coverage based on existing conditions. Another way to build a more profitable membership is to design insurance benefits that attract the healthiest patients...
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST
A major part of Florida's emergency department eye care is reimbursed through Medicaid or paid for directly by the patients. According to a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, these findings may be beneficial in strategic planning as the debate over how best to implement the nation's new health care reform law progresses...
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:00:00 PST
A study published Online First in the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, suggests that it "would be highly cost-effective" to replace visual acuity screenings for new Medicare enrollees with coverage of a dilated eye exam for healthy patients who enter the government insurance program for the elderly...
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:00:00 PST
When patients with diabetes experience interruptions in health - insurance coverage, they are less likely to receive the screening tests and vaccines they need to protect their health. A new study finds that this is true even when patients receive free or reduced-cost medical care at federally funded safety net clinics...
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST
Although minimally invasive (endovascular) treatments for patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) result in shorter hospital stays and the potential to save Medicare millions of dollars each year, a new study reveals that the quality of care and cost depend on who's providing the treatment...
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST
According to a survey, 45% of 337 retirees on Medicare consider the economy the most vital issue the United States faces in 2012, followed by health care (15%), national debt (21%), and jobs (19%). 43% of survey respondents anticipate that the economy will remain "about the same" next year...
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:00:00 PST
A new legislative proposal by The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) aims to expand the use of telemedicine for Medicaid enrollees with high-risk pregnancies and neonatal care needs. If the plan should be adopted, it would mean an improvement in providing care for people who are at-risk, whilst creating substantial long-term savings for the government as well as taxpayers...
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST
Variations in health care spending by Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) are similar throughout the state despite previous research, which found significant spending differences between the private and commercial sector in McAllen, Texas...
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:00:00 PST
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has prepared a request to submit to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand coverage of medical nutrition therapy (MNT) for specific diseases, including hypertension, obesity, and cancer, as part of the CMS National Coverage Determination (NCD) Process...
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST
High hospital readmission rates in different regions of the U.S. may have more to do with the overall high use of hospital services in those regions than with the severity of patients' particular conditions or problems in the quality of care during and after hospital discharges, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)...
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST
When it comes to receiving dental care, New Jersey has its share of underserved children, according to a Rutgers study. In 2009, more than one-fifth of the state's children between 3 and 18 received no dental care within the previous year...
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:00:00 PST
In the fierce national debate over a new federal law that requires all Americans to have health insurance, it's widely assumed that private health insurance can do a better job than the public insurance funded by the U.S. government. But a first-of-its-kind analysis of newly available government data found just the opposite when it comes to infants covered by insurance...
Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST
A first-of-its kind study led by Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, reports that a significant number of women are not receiving guideline-recommended treatment for breast cancer and what factors contribute. The research is published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology...
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:00:00 PST
Dr. Donald M. Berwick, head of Medicare and Medicaid until last Thursday, stated that up to 30% of spending on health is wasted with absolutely no benefit to beneficiaries (patients). He added that his agency's cumbersome and archaic regulations are partly to blame...
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST
There is a growing disparity between healthy and sick Americans born after 1980, caused by various factors, including a widening income gap, obesity which tends to hit certain income and ethnic groups more, access to health care services, and some other factors, researchers from Ohio State University wrote in American Sociological Review...
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:00:00 PST
The nation's largest for-profit nursing homes deliver significantly lower quality of care because they typically have fewer staff nurses than non-profit and government-owned nursing homes. That's the finding of a new UCSF-led analysis of quality of care at nursing homes around the country. It is the first-ever study focusing solely on staffing and quality at the 10 largest for-profit chains...
Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST
Medicare beneficiaries will be able to get coverage for preventive obesity counseling, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) announced today. The CMS says this is part of the widening range of preventive services CMS has been adding to its coverage since the signing of the Affordable Care Act...
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00:00 PST
States that have shifted funds away from tobacco control programs may be missing out on significant savings, according to a new study co-authored by San Francisco State University economist Sudip Chattopadhyay...
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 PST
Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, the departing CMS Administrator, brought his deep expertise and vision for health care improvement to all he did at CMS. We thank him for his leadership there, in particular the role he played in helping shape the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Accountable Care Organizations regulatory framework. Dr...
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:00:00 PST
The Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will offer free training and technical assistance for organizations that seek to use the Guided Care model to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program...
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:00:00 PST
Obama's grand plans for universal healthcare slipped further into trouble today with a survey conducted by Gallup indicating that 47% percent of those questioned favor repealing the Affordable Care Act. Only 42% said the law should remain, with 11% not having a strong opinion about whether the government should mandate and effectively force people to have health insurance...
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 PST
The odds of having heart failure appear to be higher in seniors with a low income - even among those with a college or higher education - according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011...
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:00:00 PST
Two studies presented during the American Society of Nephrology's Annual Kidney Week provide new information on kidney-related policies in the United States. Beginning in 2011, Medicare has reduced reimbursements to some dialysis facilities, which could lead to closures...
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 PST
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