Healthier US tour bus in Nebraska
July 12
"A Healthier US Starts Here" bus tour will be at the State Capitol Thursday, July 12 at 10 a.m. The tour, which was launched this spring by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is visiting state capitols, communities and Indian reservations across the 48 continental states. The tour promotes the value of disease prevention, pillars important to promoting health and wellness, and encourages seniors to become aware of Medicare’s important prevention benefits.
Gov. Dave Heineman and Dr. Joann Schaefer, DHHS chief medical officer, will welcome the tour bus at its morning stop in Lincoln. Among other scheduled stops, the tour will make a public appearance at a Thursday evening Omaha Royals baseball game at Rosenblatt Stadium. Dr. Schaefer will throw the first pitch of the game and address attendees on health, wellness and prevention information.
For more information on the “A Healthier US Starts Here” tour, visit www.healthierus.gov.
Healthier US initiative toolkits are available for health care providers at www.cms.hhs.gov/healthierus.
HHSS reorganization took effect Sunday
A reorganization that creates a single Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and affects about half of Nebraska state employees became official Sunday. The new structure will make it easier for Nebraskans to understand where to call about services. And the new leaders will create systemic and cultural changes, said Gov. Dave
Heineman.
The new DHHS will have six divisions, with names that match the kinds of services provided, Heineman said. The change should make the agency more customer-friendly. Heineman has appointed five of the six new division directors and the chief executive officer for the department. He hopes to name a director for the Division of Developmental Disabilities by the fall.
Read the full article.
— Nancy Hicks, Lincoln Journal Star, July 1, 2007.
Nebraska and Iowa companies raised employee health premiums this year
(Lincoln Journal Star) — About 38 percent of Iowa and Nebraska companies raised their employees' share of health insurance premiums this year in their efforts to reduce insurance costs, according to the Compensation Data 2007 – Iowa/Nebraska annual survey of 221 employers. This is 4 percent lower than it was in 2006. Among the Iowa and Nebraska companies surveyed, 27.5 percent and 17.9 percent of organizations raised deductibles and employee co-insurance levels respectively. Seventy-two percent of companies in Iowa and Nebraska had a health insurance premium increase this year. On average, employers contribute 9.1 percent of payroll toward the cost of health benefits, which is nearly the same cost to provide all of the following benefits: dental, pension, life, disability, and other non-mandated benefits. Health insurance premiums have continued to rise over the last three years—12.1 percent in 2006 and 11.7 percent in 2005. Compdata Surveys of Olathe, KS, conducted the survey.
— Nebraska Chamber Daily Update, July 1, 2007.
Funding to improve health services
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will distribute nearly $3 million among more than 20 community groups over the next two years to expand or enhance delivery of health services in Nebraska. "Communities will use these grants to specifically address minority health issues," said Jacquelyn Miller, deputy director for health services.
Click here to view the organizations that will receive the grants.
— Omaha World Herald, June 29, 2007.
Bill would aid rural hospitals
Reps. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Greg Walden (R-OR) recently introduced AHA-supported
legislation that would extend through 2011 critical rural health provisions of the Medicare Modernization (MMA) and Deficit Reduction
Acts (DRA). The Health Care Access and Rural Equity Act (H-CARE) would extend the outpatient hold-harmless provision for rural hospitals with fewer than 100 beds, the 2 percent add-on for ambulance trips in rural areas and the 5 percent add-on for rural home health services. It would extend Section 508 of the MMA to allow certain Medicare wage index reclassifications to proceed in a non-budget neutral way, and hospitals near a Section 508 hospital to participate in a group reclassification.
Critical access hospitals would gain flexibility to respond to daily and seasonal fluctuations in patient load and cost-based reimbursement for outpatient lab services. The bill also would remove the cap on disproportionate-share adjustment percentages for all hospitals, rebase sole community hospital payments, provide grants for health information technology and expand the 340B drug discount program. The measure (H.R. 2860) has 52 co-sponsors.
— AHA News Now, June 27, 2007.
Children's Hospital $55 million expansion plans take shape
Children's Hospital will begin construction in January on its first major expansion since 2000 – an attached five-story, $55 million out-patient care building. The project will add 364 parking stalls, direct access to and from eastbound West Dodge Road, and 135,000 square feet of what hospital executives described Thursday as much-needed space for existing and new specialty clinics.
"We are continuing to see more demand within the community, the state and also within the region for our services," said Gary Perkins, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. Perkins said the project will allow more office and clinic space for pediatric specialists from The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University Medical Center. That means fewer patients should have to leave the Children's campus for care or consultation, Perkins said.
Read the full
article. 
Chamber: Proposed IPPS cuts would hurt patients
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce yesterday urged Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt to eliminate two Medicare inpatient payment proposals that would restrict beneficiary access to needed hospital services. One proposal would cut operating and capital payments by 2.4 percent in fiscal years 2008 and 2009, resulting in an estimated $24 billion cut over five years. The other would cut another $1 billion over five years from capital payments to hospitals in urban areas. “CMS, while not required to do so, is opting to impose burdensome cuts based upon a flawed assumption that hospitals will alter coding practices (to the hospital’s benefit) in response to the new coding system,”
wrote Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue. “The net effect of the above ‘behavioral offset’ as well as the additional cuts to urban hospitals is to restrict beneficiary access—including the nation’s poorest populations—to needed hospitals services.”
— AHA News Now, June 29, 2007.
CCHIT issues criteria for inpatient EHR products
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) has approved
criteria
for certification of inpatient electronic health record products, and expects to announce the first certified products in late October. The commission, which hopes to speed adoption of health IT by establishing certification requirements based on widely accepted standards, also seeks candidates to serve on its board. For more information, see the
news
release.
— AHA News Now, June 29, 2007.
ASHHRA
releases disaster-planning guide
The American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) today issued a guide to help Human Resource (HR) professionals manage and assist health care employees before, during and after disasters. The
ASHHRA Disaster Planning Guide was inspired by members of the society who lived through the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included Hurricane Katrina, and saw a need for resources focused on disaster planning and response from the HR perspective. HR professionals can hear more about the publication and successful disaster planning at
ASHHRA’s 43rd Annual Conference and Exposition Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Anaheim, CA.
— AHA News Now, June 29, 2007.
HHS offers guidance on quality-data reporting
The Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general’s office wants to help directors of health care organizations navigate the thicket of oversight responsibilities that come with the industry’s growing focus on measurement and reporting of quality data. A new document,
Corporate Responsibility and Health Care Quality: A Resource for Health Care Boards of
Directors, was announced this week by Chief Counsel Lewis Morris during the annual meeting of the American Health Lawyers Association in Chicago.
The association will review the resource and decide whether to accept the inspector general’s invitation to co-sponsor it, said Elisabeth Belmont, the association’s president. The introduction frames the paper as an effort to help directors “ask knowledgeable and appropriate questions” and “affirmatively demonstrate that they have followed a reasonable quality oversight process.”
— Gregg Blesch, Modern Healthcare’s Daily Dose, June 29, 2007.
Senate rejects immigration reform bill
The Senate last week rejected the immigration reform bill (S. 1639) proposed by leadership. The procedural vote, called to determine whether the bill would be brought up for consideration, failed to attract the necessary 60 "yeas," instead garnering only 46. The bill, as written, would have made it more difficult for foreign-born nurses to work in
America. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled the bill from the floor, but suggested this Congress could still reconsider the issue before the end of the legislative session.
— AHA News Now, June 28, 2007.
Cornhusker State Games
July 20-29 – Lincoln, NE
Register online at CornhuskerStateGames.com or call 1-800-30-GAMES for more information.
Missing Links 1: Improving Health Care by Removing Language Barriers
July 26-27, 2007 – Cornhusker Marriott Hotel, Lincoln
This two-day conference will use the federal CLAS (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services) standards as a starting point to discuss a variety of topics related to providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services in Nebraska and assuring quality interpretation services.
Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Hospice 101 Conference
August 9-10, 2007 – North Platte and Lincoln, NE
Nebraska Rural Health Conference
September 6-7, 2007 – Holiday Inn Convention Center, Kearney
Kimball Hospital Foundation Golf Classic
September 8, 2007 – Kimball, NE
Visit the Events page on the NHA Web site for more information on any of the events.
NHA Newslink is published by the Nebraska Hospital Association, 3255 Salt Creek Circle, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68504-4761. Phone 402/742-8140, Fax 402/742-8191. Christy Rasmussen,
director of communications, at 402/742-8151, or email, crasmussen@nhanet.org.
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