Rural Emergency Medical Services Integration Guide is a guide for rural EMS considering collaboration and integration with other organizations. This document is a practical guide for ambulance services (agencies) to use in their pursuit of sustaining effective and efficient delivery of patient care and developing into an integrated system with other agencies. Integration is intended to provide and sustain improved patient care by capitalizing on efficiencies. It will provide insights into various means, which have been used by agencies within the industry to promote integration between agencies to the benefit of the agencies, the staff, and, most importantly, to the patients.
HHS Issues Strategy to Reduce EHR Regulatory Burden
HHS Issues Strategy to Reduce EHR Regulatory Burden. As part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Patients over Paperwork initiative, the Department on Friday, February 21, issued the Strategy on Reducing Regulatory and Administrative Burden Relating to the Use of Health IT and EHRs. The report describes recommendations and next steps to reduce burden related to EHRs and describes sources of electronic health record (EHR)-related burden, referencing stakeholder feedback including challenges relevant to small and rural hospitals.
EMS Is Stretched So Thin in Pennsylvania that in Some Places, Ambulance Calls Go Unanswered
EMS is stretched so thin in rural Pennsylvania that some ambulance calls are going unanswered…Read more
State Delays Overhaul of MATP Program
Based on findings of a new report, state officials will not award a statewide brokerage contract and will continue to study how to best administer the Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) that aids low-income Pennsylvanians who need nonemergency medical transportation, at least in the short term. The Department of Human Services (DHS) has released its report on the potential impact of MATP being administered by regional brokers for all regions of the commonwealth. DHS oversees the entire MATP and the commonwealth offers and provides funding for MATP in all 67 counties. To read the full report, click here.
Pennsylvania Preferred Drug List Requirement Effective Jan. 1
| Pennsylvania Preferred Drug List Requirement Effective Jan. 1
The Department of Human Services (DHS) implemented a statewide Preferred Drug List (PDL) effective on Jan. 1, 2020. The PDL will be utilized by the fee-for-service program and all Medical Assistance (MA) managed care organizations (MCOs) in Pennsylvania, including those in the HealthChoices and the Community HealthChoices programs. The state believes the PDL will result in administrative simplification for providers and decrease healthcare costs in the long term. DHS estimates the new approach will save the state $85 million a year. DHS estimates that approximately 150,000 Medicaid recipients will have to change their prescription medications as a result of the implementation of the statewide PDL. Read more.
New Federal Overtime Rule Effective Jan. 1 The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s changes to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) went into effect on Jan. 1. This rule updates the minimum salary thresholds (previously set in 2004) necessary to exempt executive, administrative, or professional employees from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The rule does not, however, make any changes to the “duties” tests. This new rule, estimated to impact 1.3 million workers:
For more information, details and how this could affect you and your health center, click here. It should also be noted that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) has final rules impacting overtime in the regulatory approval process. Those final rules provide for annual increases to the minimum salary threshold level for “white collar” workers to $875 per week ($45,550 per year) in 2022. Following three years of annual increases, beginning in 2023, the salary level would be automatically adjusted every three years “at a rate equal to the 10th percentile of Pennsylvania workers who work in exempt executive, administrative or professional classifications.” L&I estimates that following implementation of its final rule, an additional 82,000 Pennsylvania employees will be eligible for overtime by 2022. Although PACHC and health centers as well as the PA Chamber of Commerce and many other business stakeholders are on record opposing the rule, it is anticipated that the rule is likely to be approved by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) during it January meeting and that there is unlikely to be a veto-proof majority in the legislature to stop its implementation.
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Proposed Senate Bill Targets SDOH
The Social Determinants Accelerator Act of 2019 (S. 2986) was introduced in the U.S. Senate in December to create a coordinated approach among federal agencies to address social determinants of health (SDOH) for Medicaid recipients. The act, if it becomes law, would establish a federal interagency council that would make recommendations on how best to coordinate funding and the administration of federal programs incorporating the use of data to better meet the needs and improve the care for Medicaid recipients. The council would work to award “Social Determinants Accelerator Grants” to state or local governments or tribal health or human services agencies to fund “programs that would seek to benefit targeted populations, seeking to access and link relevant data to enable coordinated benefits and services that would achieve at least one measurable health outcome and one important social benefit.” Read more.
PA NEN 2020 Annual Conference
2020 Annual Conference Nutrition Education with Public Health Approaches: Building Strong & Healthy Communities.
Click HERE to register. As of today we have 116 registrants! Our Keynote Speakers will be:
Keynote Speaker – “Moving from What and Why to How: Recommendations for Addressing the Social Determinants of Health”: Gabriel Kaplan, PhD, MPA, URP, Chief, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Keynote Speaker – Collaboration Building – Frances Butterfoss, PhD, MSEd consultant at Coalition Work
Other topics include:
Social media ethics and strategy for food and nutrition professionals: Julie Stefanski, MEd, RDN, CSSD, LDN, CDE of Stefanski Nutrition Services and Food, Nutrition and Dietetics Content Writer for OnCourse Healthcare, a Relias Company
Field trip to Upper Merion Community Garden and Upper Merion Area Food Cupboard
MANNA’s medically tailored, home-delivered meals program and updates on their new research and nutrition institute
Medicaid Telehealth Guidance
As a companion piece to the earlier released Medicare Telehealth Guidance, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services today released Medicaid Telehealth Guidance to states. You can find a copy of the guidance here: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/downloads/medicaid-telehealth-services.pdf
Additionally, you can find the homepage for general Medicaid Telehealth Guidance here: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/telemedicine/index.html
President Trump Expands Telehealth Benefits for Medicare Beneficiaries During COVID-19 Outbreak
On March 17, the Trump Administration announced expanded Medicare telehealth coverage that will enable beneficiaries to receive a wider range of health care services from their doctors without having to travel to a health care facility. Beginning on March 6, 2020, Medicare—administered by CMS—will temporarily pay clinicians to provide telehealth services for beneficiaries residing across the entire country.
For More Information:
This guidance, and earlier CMS actions in response to the COVID-19 virus, are part of the ongoing White House Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19, visit the coronavirus.gov webpage.
For information specific to CMS, visit the Current Emergencies website.
Report on CAH Hospital Compare Measures Released
The national Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) has released reports of Critical Access Hospital (CAH) performance and reporting rates on selected Hospital Compare measures, using data from 2018.
The Hospital Compare data in this report include several measures that are also measures for the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP). Although the majority of CAHs report data on these measures to both Hospital Compare and MBQIP, the data in this report may differ from MBQIP reports because some CAHs only report data to one of these programs.
The national report may accessed here and state reports may be accessed via the links below. All FMT publications can also be found on the Flex website.