KHA has partnered with the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs and the Office of Inspector General to encourage hospitals to become more knowledgeable about caring for victims of sexual assault and to work toward becoming a designated SANE-Ready Hospital. State law requires all Kentucky hospitals to:

Treat victims of sexual assault who present to their emergency room regardless of the certifications and experience of staff in the emergency department; Perform a medical forensic exam on the individual if consent is given; and Contact the local Rape Crisis Center. The Kentucky General Assembly established the “SANE-Ready Hospital” program through legislation in the 2016 General Assembly. Hospitals demonstrating they have Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners available to treat patients presenting to the emergency room can apply for this designation. KHA encourages all Kentucky hospitals with emergency departments to work towards achieving this designation. For more information on becoming a SANE-Ready Hospital, review...

After a request from KHA and its members, three U.S. Congressmen from Kentucky (Andy Barr, Thomas Massie and Hal Rogers) have signed onto the Tiberi-Kind “Dear Colleague” letter pertaining to CMS policies on alternative payment models (APMs). KHA is grateful for their support.

The Chairman Pat Tiberi and Congressman Kind Dear Colleague letter urges the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide health care providers more regulatory relief and flexibility under APMs like bundling, the “CJR” program for joint replacement, accountable care organizations and other models intended to move health care delivery away from site-specific, fee-for-service reimbursement. CMS has the authority to waive numerous rules and statutory provisions in these alternative care delivery and reimbursement models, yet with few exceptions it has not done so.

More waivers around site-specific acute and post-acute regulations are needed that were originally implemented for a purely fee-for-service reimbursement...

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently held a press conference and early release of the latest MMWR report on Legionnaire’s disease. In this report, the CDC noted most outbreaks of Legionellosis occurred in hotels/motels, long-term care facilities and hospitals. More importantly, the CDC noted that most outbreaks of Legionellosis were preventable. Their investigations show almost all outbreaks were caused by problems that are preventable with effective water management.

In response to the CDC's report, the Kentucky Department for Public Health has distributed a public health notice containing CDC resources to assist building owners and managers in the implementation of a building water management program following the latest industry standards. Implementation of such a program can prevent Legionella growth in building water systems and thus prevent outbreaks of Legionellosis....

On September 14, KHA submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) rule addressing the treatment of third-party payers in calculating uncompensated care costs.

KHA and Kentucky's hospitals disagree with the position of CMS to require counting payments from Medicare and other private insurers to calculate uncompensated care costs for retention of DSH payments. The proposed rule would redefine a hospital's cost of care and is not authorized by statute.

The law states clearly that the only costs counted are Medicaid payments and payments made by uninsured patients, not payments made by other programs or insurers.

This proposal would harm many safety net hospitals, and would have devastating consequences for Kentucky's rural hospitals.

For a full copy of the comments, visit the Policy page in the Advocacy section of www.kyha.com.

If you have any questions,...

All KHA members are invited to attend the KHA Legislative Committee meeting on September 14, from 10:00 a.m. (ET) through a working lunch, at KHA Headquarters in Louisville.

The meeting will begin with guest speaker Medicaid Commissioner Steve Miller updating attendees on the 1115 Medicaid Waiver.  You will have an opportunity to ask him any questions that you may have about the waiver. 

Members will discuss state issues and take positions on legislation to recommend for inclusion on the KHA Legislative Platform. 

Representative Joni Jenkins (D-44), the House Appropriations and Revenue Human Resources Subcommittee chair, will be the luncheon speaker to discuss the state budget and Medicaid funding.  Since there may be legislation to change the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program payment this session, this is a great opportunity to educate Representative Jenkins on the need for keeping the Medicaid DSH payments at the highest level allowed by federal law.

If you...

On October 20, KHA will host a seminar to get hospitals up to date on the latest changes in Joint Commission accreditation. The event will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn Louisville Northeast.

Many changes are occurring in the Joint Commission Accreditation process through January 2017, and the changes will have a great deal of impact on accredited organizations. With the implementation of the Project Refresh SAFER Matrix for scoring and the changes related to management of the Plan for Improvement associated with the Statement of Conditions, there will be some interesting challenges for all health care organizations. The Joint Commission Update 2017 seminar will provide information needed to understand and manage these accreditation process changes. Topics to be discussed include the Project Refresh and the SAFER Scoring Matrix, The Plan for Improvement portion of the Statement of Conditions post survey, frequently cited and challenging standards and High Reliability.

The event brochure...

On September 15, KHA, along with the Kentucky Office of Inspector General and the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, will host a webinar on the SANE-Ready Hospital: What it Means and How to Achieve It.

The Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) Act passed in the 2016 General Assembly. This is a comprehensive measure which seeks to address a number of barriers to providing both health care services and justice for victims of sexual assault. Key to hospitals, the SAFE Act seeks to improve the quality of care sexual assault victims receive by the establishment of the SANE-ready designation for acute care hospitals. SANE stands for Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. In order to qualify for the designations, hospitals must certify they have a SANE nurse on call 24/7.

For program details, view the brochure....

On September 6, KHA submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the calendar year (CY) 2017 hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) proposed rule that would implement site-neutral provisions of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BiBA).

Kentucky's hospitals are opposed to CMS' site-neutral proposal because the rule would not only apply to new off-campus outpatient facilities but also to existing hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) that expand services or relocate to benefit their communities by lowering payment.

For a full copy of KHA's comments, members may visit the Policy page of the Advocacy section of www.kyha.com.

If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Galvagni at KHA (ngalvagni@kyha.com).

As an added benefit for KHA members, the annual publication Kentucky Hospital Statistics is now available online. The book can be downloaded in pdf format for your convenience at www.kyha.com/CM/Publications/KY_Hospital_Statistics.aspx.

You will find this resource and others under "Special Publications" in the Publications tab of the KHA website, www.kyha.com.

Kentucky Hospital Statistics is a comprehensive compilation of data on Kentucky hospitals:

Numbers, types and location of hospitals in Kentucky (sample page) Utilization of services (sample page) Hospital finances (sample page) Quality indicators (sample page)...

KEPRO, Kentucky's quality improvement organization (QIO), announced on Friday that the Short Stay reviews will be resuming soon. The organization hopes to receive further details from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week, and will provide more information at that time about upcoming informational webinars that will be held during the third week of September.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced an error in calculating Clostridium difficile infection performance during the first two quarters of 2014. This error affects hospital performance in the fiscal year 2017 Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program, baseline performance in the FY 2018 hospital value-based purchasing program, and measure data reported on Hospital Compare in 2015. As a result, CMS is conducting a second review and corrections period for the FY 2017 HAC program from today through Sept. 30 to allow hospitals to review their updated C Difficile performance. CMS also has updated the baseline period performance standard for the FY 2018 VBP program, and intends to update the archived databases of Hospital Compare to reflect corrected performance data. For more information, see CMS’s QualityNet website.