KHA is excited to announce James C. Musser, Esq. has joined the KHA staff as the new Vice President of Health Policy. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in health policy and legislative issues in both Frankfort and Washington, DC. Musser’s policy expertise also includes the federal budget, taxes and entitlement programs.

Most recently, Musser served as the Executive Director of the Office of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. His role at the Cabinet involved overseeing legislative and regulatory initiatives and acting as the Cabinet’s chief liaison to the General Assembly.

Before joining the Cabinet, Musser spent 25 years in Washington, DC, where he served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Labor after working...

A new section of the KHA website provides resources for hospitals to help combat workplace violence in the health care setting. Visit http://www.kyha.com/health-care-workplace-violence for resources, references and updated news on the latest efforts to address this serious issue.

The information will be updated as new resources become available.

If you have any questions, please contact Richard Bartlett at KHA (rbartlett@kyha.com).

Today, KHA staff celebrated the long and successful career of Chuck Warnick, Vice President of Data Analysis and Planning. He will retire at the end of the year, but will continue as a consultant to the Association for its strategic planning process in 2020.

Warnick joined KHA in 2007 to oversee the operation of the Discharge Data Set Program and has been instrumental in the development and the statewide use of KHA InfoSuite, the state database decision support tool available to members at no extra cost. Warnick has also developed and produced countless reports and data analysis to assist the membership and to support KHA's representation and advocacy efforts.

Before joining KHA, Warnick with Thomson Healthcare in Franklin, Tennessee, overseeing all the company's consulting support projects using...

Two new team members recently joined the KHA staff — Phil Brandenburg, Director of Data Analytics, and Carla Donnell, Director of Patient Safety, Quality/Health Professions.

Phil Brandenburg has 16 years experience in health care, 14 years experience in health care data analysis and ten years experience as a user of KHA InfoSuite. Phil was a beta tester for the current version and is considered a super user of the product. He has also trained numerous analysts and planning personnel.

Phil is a Navy Aviation veteran and a native of Kentucky, who received his MBA in Management and a BBA in Computer Information Systems from Eastern Kentucky University. Additionally, he received a BS in Health Care Management from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale. 

Phil will oversee...

The Policy page of KHA's website, www.kyha.com, has a new look. Visit www.kyha.com/policy for the KHA legislative priorities, latest one pagers on policy, legislation, issues and more.

Members can also click a link from the page to view comments KHA has submitted to government agencies.

KHA's Pharmacy Consultant Emily Henderson, PharmD was recently elected as a first-time member of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Henderson attended UK from 1994 to 2001, when she received her doctorate of pharmacy degree, summa cum laude, from the UK College of Pharmacy. She was a member of Chi Omega sorority and the Rho Chi pharmacy honor society. From 2001 to 2016, Henderson was employed by Kroger as a staff pharmacist. She now works with the Kentucky Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network (K-HIIN) to promote quality improvement and patient safety in hospitals across the Commonwealth and as the project lead for the Kentucky Statewide Opioid Stewardship (KY SOS). She is a member of the Kentucky Pharmacists Association and the Kentucky Society of Health-System Pharmacists....

Two KHA staff members are retiring after successful careers — Donna Meador and Brad Learn. Join us in celebrating their careers and wishing them well.

The third episode of The Kentucky Hospitals Podcast is now available to download. Members can access the latest episodes at www.kyha.com/podcast. Just log in on any desktop or mobile device for a list of episodes. You can also click the Subscribe button there to receive email notifications when a new episode is produced.

In episode 4, hear a report on the KHA Board of Trustees meeting, the UPL program (now called the Medicaid Hospital Rate Improvement Program or HRIP), certificate of need, price transparency, upcoming meetings and Nancy Galvagni's latest trip to Washington where she...

The Kentucky Hospital Association is actively recruiting a Director of Data Analytics, who will be responsible for conducting KHA’s research and data analysis activities. This position will also be responsible for a wide variety of health care data analysis and preparation of reports to assist the membership and to support the Association’s representation and advocacy function.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Oversee claims-related data exchange programs and projects with other state associations. Perform analytical audits of KHA claims data for reasonableness and accuracy. Prepare white papers and other analysis and reports for the membership on various topics using KHA Claims Data and other data sources. Perform data analyses and prepare reports to support health policy analysis, representation, advocacy and planning as directed by the Vice President of Data and Health Information Services, Vice President of Financial Policy, Vice President of Member Services or the President. ...

The website for the Kentucky Statewide Opioid Stewardship (KY SOS) program, www.kentuckysos.com, is live. The site contains resources for participating hospitals, upcoming events, recordings and presentations from past events, information on the Advisory Committee and more.

If your hospital is not yet participating in the program, contact Donna Meador at KHA (dmeador@kyha.com).

We hope you enjoy the KHA daily newsletter, Health e-News. The newsletter will receive a revamp soon, so we want to make sure you're prepared for the change! The email will come from a new address (kyha@memberclicks-mail.net), so please take the time now to add this address to your email address book or ask your IT team to whitelist it for your servers.

These steps will ensure you continue to receive the daily news clipping and blog updates in addition to other KHA group emails. This change will happen within the next two weeks, so take action now to ensure you do not miss any daily emails.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact Ginger Dreyer at KHA (gdreyer@kyha.com).

The third episode of The Kentucky Hospitals Podcast is now available to download. Members can access the latest episodes at www.kyha.com/podcast. Just log in on any desktop or mobile device for a list of episodes. You can also click the Subscribe button there to receive email notifications when a new episode is produced.

In this episode, hear about recent visits to Frankfort where KHA staff and a member testified before the Cabinet for Health & Family Services as well as legislators on hospital data, price transparency and Medicaid issues. Plus, hear about the update to the Medicare...

The Kentucky Hospital Association currently has two positions open — Director of Quality & Health Professions and Emergency Preparedness/Trauma Coordinator.

The Director Quality & Health Professions for KHA will provide expertise on issues related to health professions. The Director will provide oversight of work including development of detailed quality and patient safety improvement project plans, engagement of hospitals and execution of project plans including documentation and tracking of project results and related data.

In addition, this position will lead and facilitate collaborative activities on behalf of Kentucky hospitals with a focus on engaging hospital quality improvement staff, management, nursing and other clinical and non-clinical front-line staff for Kentucky hospitals to achieve success in focus areas of the work plan of the Kentucky Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (KIPSQ).

The Director will work closely with other KHA staff assigned to quality and patient safety projects to assure coordination of staff activities; shall demonstrate accountability for the successful completion of all contracts and grants that focus on quality improvement and patient safety; and will supervise the KHA Quality Improvement Analyst and the Infection Prevention Improvement Advisor. Required education: MSN....

KHA is pleased to announce that Harold C. “Bud” Warman, Jr., FACHE has joined the Association staff as Vice President of Member Services. In his position at KHA, he will deal with member issues and oversee KHA’s rural health care initiatives, the Kentucky Hospital Research & Education Foundation (KHREF) and government relations.

Warman is a graduate of West Virginia University and received his Master’s degree in Health Care Administration and Management from Xavier University. Before becoming a part of the Association’s team, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg for 21 years, and served as the 2012-2013 Chair of the KHA Board of Trustees.

His wealth of experience, knowledge and education will make him a tremendous asset to the Association and its members.

The second episode of The Kentucky Hospitals Podcast is now available to download. Members can access the latest episodes at www.kyha.com/podcast. Just log in on any desktop or mobile device for a list of episodes. You can also click the Subscribe button there to receive email notifications when a new episode is produced.

In this episode, KHA President Nancy Galvagni discusses KHA's recent advocacy trip to Washington, DC. Listeners will hear details of the discussions the KHA team had with members of the Kentucky congressional delegation.

Please feel free to contact Ginger Dreyer...

KHA is always looking for new ways to communicate with its members. To provide a new platform that presents the latest Association information in a convenient format, KHA is proud to present its brand new resource: The Kentucky Hospitals Podcast.

Members can access the latest episodes at www.kyha.com/podcast. Just log in on any desktop or mobile device for a list of episodes. You can click the Subscribe button there to receive email notifications when a new episode is produced.

The inaugural episode covers key issues KHA is currently working on for the membership including "surprise...

The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) today announced that its board of directors has appointed Nancy Galvagni as President and Chief Executive Officer.

In December, long-time KHA President Michael T. Rust announced his retirement after 24 years with the organization. The KHA Board of Trustees then began a nationwide search for his successor. The organization engaged the services of Witt/Kieffer to conduct the search.

Galvagni has been with KHA since 1979 and has served as the senior vice president for the past 20 years. In addition, she has served as the executive director of the Kentucky Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (KIPSQ), a federally certified patient safety organization and subsidiary of KHA. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, is a past president...

The National Institute on Drug Abuse ranks Kentucky among the top 10 states with the highest opioid-related overdose deaths, and Kentucky’s hospitals are on the front line in the fight to help the state recover. To assist the state’s hospitals in this battle, the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) is partnering with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services as part of the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) to launch the Kentucky Statewide Opioid Stewardship (KY SOS) program.

Opioid stewardship involves a coordinated effort to reduce opioid-related harm by developing alternative means to manage pain and, when opioids are used, assuring that opioid prescribing and patient monitoring aligns with evidence-based guidelines. KY SOS will focus on reducing opioid overprescribing and improving safe opioid use...

KHA's mobile app is a great resource for Convention and beyond! The app not only provides all the details, maps, schedules and presentations for Convention, but also includes information members can use year round! There will not be USB drives of presentations this year. All presentations will be on the app or the KHA Convention website, www.khaconference.com.

The app includes:

Hospital Directory; KHA Staff Directory; Events Calendar; Advocacy Information; Sponsors; and More. If you downloaded the Convention app last year, you can simply update the app on your mobile device. Sometimes after an app update, rebooting your device can be helpful.

For...

The digital edition of KHA's 2019 Membership Directory and Legislative Directory is available now. Visit www.kyha.com and click on Print Directory on the right side of the page to view. You can also follow this link to reach the Directory directly.

Hospital executives will receive printed copies of the Directory shortly.

Clicking on any of the following Table of Contents links will deliver you directly to that page of the Directory.

...

As you know, KHA has embarked on a journey to identify the next President and CEO for KHA. The initial step entailed engaging Witt/Kieffer, a national executive search firm to partner with the Association in conducting a thorough national search for KHA’s next leader.

As a next step, the Search Committee invites KHA members to provide input regarding the candidate profile and other topics as the search process formally commences. Witt/Kieffer's team, Paul Bohne, Adriane Willig and John McFarland, is setting up two calls to gather feedback from KHA's members. During the calls, they will be seeking your input on topics such as:

Vision for the Association Opportunities and challenges facing KHA Expectations for the next leader and measures of success Views on leadership experience and characteristics that candidates should possess Dates and times for the conference calls are:

Tuesday, February...

To give staff members the opportunity celebrate the holidays with their families, KHA Headquarters will have the following closures in the next two weeks:

Thursday, December 20 - The office will close at noon for the KHA Christmas Party.

Monday, December 24 to Wednesday, December 26 - The office will be closed for Christmas.

Monday, December 31 - The office will close at noon for New Years Eve.

Tuesday, January 1- The office will be closed for New Years Day.

Happy Holidays from the KHA Staff!

On Friday, Michael T. Rust announced his plans to retire on December 31, 2019, after 24 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA). Rust leaves a long and impactful legacy not only on the Association, but on all hospitals and health care in the state of Kentucky.

Rust has led KHA through nearly two and a half decades of change in the health care industry. Under his leadership, all the hospitals in Kentucky have retained membership in the Association, helping them speak with one common voice at both the state and federal levels.

“Mike has been an invaluable part of KHA during his tenure,” stated Jane Wheatley, chair of the KHA Board and president of Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville. “He has enhanced the organization at every level and been a unifying force for hospitals throughout the commonwealth. The KHA Board and I are immensely grateful for his service.”

“It has been an honor serving KHA and the hospitals of Kentucky,” Rust noted. “I have enjoyed my time with the Association and I’m proud of the accomplishments we’ve made supporting hospitals and ensuring they can continue to provide the highest quality care to all Kentuckians.”

The KHA Board will engage a search firm in early 2019 to find a successor. To ensure the best possible candidate is selected for the position, a national search will be conducted.

The KHA phone system is now repaired. You can again reach us via phone (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542).

KHA's phone system is currently down. We have contacted our provider for service, but we do not currently know how long the system will be unavailable. All staff has access to email, and if you need to contact us urgently, but do not know which staff member can help, please email communications@kyha.com.

This blog article will be updated when the system is repaired.

KHA recently updated its member database software. As the Association uses this software to send out group emails, some hospitals may be blocking those messages thinking they are spam.

In order to ensure you receive communications from KHA, please make sure you add kyha@memberclicks-mail.net to your list of approved senders. You might also want to alert your IT team to this change.

If you are new to KHA, or if you just need a refresher about what the Association does for you, there is a new tool to help! Visit the new KHA Membership Guide online at https://www.kyha.com/membership-guide.

The guide provides a short overview of KHA's governance and services as well as where to find more details on the website. The Staff section of the guide also provides a listing of staff members to contact based on different topics/issues you may wish to discuss.

If you have any questions, the KHA staff is here to serve you.

KHA's Vice President of Government Relations Sarah S. Nicholson announced her retirement today. She has been a dedicated member of the KHA staff for over 38 years. Throughout her entire career here, she has worked tirelessly advocating at the state and federal levels to protect and advance Kentucky hospitals.

The entire KHA staff and membership will miss working with Sarah, but we know she is excited to enjoy her retirement with her family – especially her grandchildren. We wish Sarah all the best on her new adventure.

Sarah’s final day with KHA will be later this year.

On July 1, the 2018-2019 KHA Board of Trustees officially takes office. Jane Wheatley, chief executive officer of Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville, will serve as Chair of the Board for the new fiscal year. Garren Colvin, chief executive officer of St. Elizabeth Healthcare, will serve as Chair-Elect.

A complete listing of the Board is available at https://www.kyha.com/assets/docs/KHABoardMembers2018.pdf.

KHA is pleased to announce the Association's app is new, improved and ready for download. The app not only provides all the details, maps, schedules and presentations for Convention, but now includes information members can use year round!

The app includes:

• Hospital Directory;
• KHA Staff Directory;
• Events Calendar;
• Advocacy Information;
• Sponsors; and
• More As The App Evolves.

On February 27, KHA received notice from the state Office of Inspector General (OIG) that plans of correction in response to an OIG inspection/complaint investigation can no longer contain disclaimer statements. This is effective immediately.

If a facility submits a plan of correction with a disclaimer statement in it, the plan of correction will be considered unacceptable and the facility will be notified accordingly. OIG will not be able to conduct revisits or place a facility back in compliance until an acceptable plan of correction is received.

Sandra Houchen, director of the Division of Health Care for the OIG stated that she understood these disclaimer statements have been a long-term, ongoing practice by facilities in this state and other states. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Region IV has instructed that the state survey agencies are not to accept plans of correction that contain disclaimer statements going forward.

KHA is sad to announce the passing of Joyce Dauenhauer, who worked with KHA for 16 years before her retirement in 2010. A service to celebrate Joyce's life is being held today at 1:00 pm in the Chapel of Arch L. Heady Funeral Home in Louisville, with burial to follow at Cave Hill.

Expressions of sympathy can be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation Louisville Chapter or The Parkinson's Foundation Louisville Chapter.

Condolences for the family can be left at www.archlheadywestport.com.

The comment period for Kentucky's proposed Medicaid Waiver has been extended to August 14. The extension was posted by the Administration to the web yesterday.

Visit http://chfs.ky.gov/dms/kh for instructions on how to submit your comments if you missed the original July 22 deadline.

Today, the 2016-2017 KHA Board of Trustees officially takes office. Susan Starling, president/chief executive officer of Marcum and Wallace Memorial Hospital in Irvine, will serve as Chair of the Board for the new fiscal year. Jerry Penner, chief executive officer of Murray-Calloway County Hospital in Murray, will serve as Chair-Elect.

A complete listing of the Board is available at http://www.new-kyha.com/Portals/5/NewsDocs/KHABoard2016.pdf.

Governor Matt Bevin held a news conference Wednesday morning to announce his plan to replace Kentucky's expanded Medicaid program.

Bevin would like to launch a program called “Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health” (HEALTH). It would be a waiver application process for people wanting Medicaid coverage. This plan is a 1115 waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for a demonstration project designed to "provide dignity to individuals as they move towards self-reliability, accountability and ultimately independence from public assistance." It is only for the Medicaid expansion population — those between 100-138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FP)L. Governor Bevin stressed that this program is for able-bodied participants, and not the frail or elderly.

“This proposal is modeled after the very same health plan offered to Kentucky state employees including incentives to promote healthy lifestyles. This plan offers common sense strategies to help our citizens...

An emergency amendment to a regulation to make Zika Virus Disease reportable in Kentucky has been signed by Governor Matt Bevin. The approved emergency amendment to the Reportable Disease Surveillance regulation (902 KAR 2:020) was then filed on June 15 with the Legislative Research Commission. The emergency amendment was effective as of the date filed with the LRC.

Thus, Zika Virus Disease is now reportable in Kentucky. Notification shall be considered priority and shall be made within one (1) business day.

For Priority Reporting, a report made within one (1) business day shall be:

 Submitted electronically, by fax, or by telephone to the local health department serving the county in which the patient resides; and If submitted by telephone, followed up by electronic or fax submission of a report to the local health department serving the county in which the patient resides within one (1) business day. A report submitted by fax shall be made with...

Kim Dees will be leaving the KHA staff at the end of June upon mutual agreement with KHA President Mike Rust. Dees has served for nine years as KHA’s Vice President for Health Professions. The loss of anticipated grant funding from an American Apprenticeship Initiative earlier in the year and dissolution of the Workforce Consortium last year eliminated funding support for the position. At the same time, Dees was investigating other opportunities she hopes to pursue that may continue to offer her the opportunity to interact with KHA members and nursing leadership, both in hospitals and universities.

Various responsibilities previously undertaken by Dees will be assigned to other staff.

KHA has appointed Susan Starling, chief executive officer of Marcum and Wallace Memorial Hospital in Irvine, as the KHA Board Chair Elect for 2015-2016. She replaces Vicki Darnell, who recently retired, on the KHA Board of Trustees.

Starling will serve as Chair Elect for the remainder of the Association year.

This week, KHA is updating its main website, www.kyha.com. This will include a complete upgrade with a number of new features for members. During the transition, the website will be down and inaccessible. KHA staff will work to make sure this causes as little inconvenience as possible; however, the outage could last 24-48 hours.

As soon as the change is complete, there will be information in KHA Health e-News about the new features and how to access your individual site account.

If you have any questions about the site, please contact Ginger Dreyer at KHA (gdreyer@kyha.com).

Baptist Health Paducah and hospital Baptist Health Madisonville have both received federal approval to move forward with plans to develop long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) within each facility. Baptist Health is partnering with ContinueCARE Hospital, a not-for-profit Community Hospital Corporation subsidiary based in Plano, Texas, to operate the new hospitals within the current facilities at Paducah and Madisonville.

The first stage of the new “hospital within a hospital” program for long-term patients will both open at Baptist Health Madisonville and Baptist Health Paducah this summer, eventually saving 540 families a year in Madisonville and 800 families a year in the Paducah area from having to travel out of the area for care.

During the demonstration phase, the hospitals will meet the needs of their patients instead of transferring them out to a distant facility. Once licensed, the local facility will be able to accept more patients from neighboring hospitals.

Long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) specialize in treating critically-ill patients needing extended care for 25 days or more who:...

Based upon a request from the KHA Strategic Planning Committee, the Association is a creating a new Action Alert System for its members.  If you have not already signed up by creating an account with Reach Alert, please take a moment to find the email from Ginger Dreyer at KHA on October 8 with your personal registration code.   Or, contact Ginger at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via e-mail at gdreyer@kyha.com) to obtain your personal registration code.

The KHA Action Alert System  will advise you of breaking, time sensitive information and of pending legislation, changes in the law or other situations that require your immediate attention. 

You will get to decide how you wish to receive alerts: cell phone text messages, automated voice call to a cell phone and/or email.

KHA will use the Action Alert System for timely, though not necessarily, emergency messages....

In an effort to spread the word and to make sure that health care providers (and school personnel) are familiar with the Caregiver Authorization Law, KHA is alerting hospitals that when caregivers come in and present an affidavit stating they are the primary caregiver of the child, that health care treatment is then authorized.

The law was passed last year (SB 176) and it allows a relative caregiver to sign an affidavit to access key services for the children in their care without the need for legal custody or guardianship.  Caregivers can complete an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, stating that they are the primary caregiver of the child, and then by presenting the form, they can authorize health care treatment, educational services, and school enrollment.

The Kentucky Youth Advocates worked with an attorney from Legal Aid to create a model affidavit which is essentially a form that caregivers can complete to create their own affidavit, based on what is now statute.  The form can then be presented...

Coroners, funeral home personnel, physicians and others responsible for the registration of death certificates will soon be required to electronically file information needed to complete death certificates, using the Kentucky Electronic Death Registration System (KY-EDRS).  

The change will take effect January 1, 2015, phasing out the paper based system currently used by the Office of Vital Statistics in conjunction with electronic reporting.  The transition to exclusive electronic filing, mandated by state law, is anticipated to speed the process, while maintaining the accuracy and security of the records.

Additional information is available on the KY-EDRS website at this link.

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...