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CMS
Relaxes Requirements and Procedures In Wake of Katrina HHS
Creates National Crisis Hotline for Victims of Hurricane
Katrina CMS
Solicits Proposals for Health Care Quality Demonstration HHS
Picks Commissioners for American Health Information
Community New
Measures on Hospital Compare Study
Finds More EHR Support Needed for Small Practices CMS
Relaxes Requirements and Procedures In Wake of Katrina In
response to the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane
Katrina in Southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama,
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
has assured providers and beneficiaries of Medicare,
Medicaid, and State Children’s Health Insurance
Programs (SCHIP) that the agency will relax normal
operating procedures to speed provision of health care
services to the elderly, children, and persons with
disabilities. CMS
is assuring those facilities treating displaced patients
with no health care records or verification of their
status as a beneficiary that normally required documentation
will be suspended and that the presumption of eligibility
should be made. Federal Medicaid officials are also
working closely with state Medicaid agencies to coordinate
resolution of interstate payment agreements for recipients
who are served outside their home states. The
agency is also offering the following relief: For
more information about CMS emergency relief activities,
including a detailed explanation of billing and payment
policy revisions, and phone numbers for the state medical
assistance offices: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/katrina/ HHS
Creates National Crisis Hotline for Victims of Hurricane
Katrina A
toll-free hotline has been established by the Department
of Health and Human Services for people in crisis in
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. By dialing 1-800-273-TALK
(1-800-273-8255), callers will be connected to a national
network of local crisis centers where they will receive
counseling from trained staff. The
network is being run by HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration and involves more than
110 certified crisis centers. Callers will be provided
with immediate access to local resources, referrals
and expertise. Department
Takes Steps to Pay for Medical Care of Evacuees in
Texas CMS
Solicits Proposals for Health Care Quality Demonstration The
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
is soliciting for proposals for the Medicare Health
Care Quality Demonstration. The 5-year project seeks
to improve quality while increasing efficiency through
major regional health care system redesign. Projects
and strategies selected as part of the demonstration
will be expected to demonstrate how they achieve safety,
effectiveness, efficiency, patient-centeredness, timeliness
and equity: the six aims for improvement in quality
identified by the Institute of Medicine in its Crossing
the Quality Chasm. Demonstrations that achieve such
improvements in quality, including efficiency, can
qualify for greater Medicare payments to participating
health care providers in the area. Physician
groups, integrated delivery systems, or regional coalitions
are invited to apply. Applicants may propose a variety
of payment methodologies to cover demonstration services
and to provide incentives for improving quality and
efficiency of care, provided that the proposal achieves
budget neutrality. Proposals
will be considered in two groups. Applicants wishing
to be considered in the first group must submit their
proposals no later than January 30, 2006. Those wishing
to be considered in the second round should submit
a letter of intent no later than January 30, 2006,
followed by an application by September 29, 2006. For
more information: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/researchers/demos/mma646/. HHS
Picks Commissioners for American Health Information
Community The
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released
the names of 16 commissioners to serve on the American
Health Information Community, a federally-chartered
commission charged with advising Secretary Leavitt
on how to make health information digital and interoperable.
The first Community meeting, which is open to the public,
is set for October 7 in Washington, DC. The
Community seeks to help patients, doctors, hospitals
and insurance companies gain electronic access to reduce
medical errors, improve quality, lower costs, and eliminate
paperwork hassle. The
commissioners are: The
Community will be chaired by Secretary Leavitt who
will seek additional input from subject matter experts
on issues related to interoperability, adoption, privacy,
security, and other matters identified by the Community.
Each commissioner will serve a two-year term. Materials
shared with the commissioners before and at the meeting,
as well as minutes of the proceedings can be accessed
online at www.hhs.gov/healthit. A full copy of the
Community’s charter is available at www.hhs.gov/healthit/ahiccharter.pdf. New
Measures on Hospital Compare The
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) have announced
the availability of updated information on the Hospital
Compare website, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. In addition
to the original 17 measures reported since this April
on Hospital Compare, the site now offers data on two
new surgical infection prevention measures (prophylactic
antibiotic received within 1 hour prior to surgical
incision and prophylactic antibiotics discontinued
within 24 hours after surgery end time) and a new pneumonia
measure (appropriate initial antibiotic selection). In
total, Hospital Compare now contains 20 publicly reported
clinical measures. Both
CMS and HQA have noted an overall increase in the amount
of data hospitals are providing: CMS
also announced that Home Health Compare, a website
where consumers can find information about the quality
of care provided by the nation’s home health
agencies is now available in Spanish. Study
Finds More EHR Support Needed for Small Practices A
study in the September/October edition of Health Affairs, “Medical
Groups’ Adoption of Electronic Health Records
and Information Systems,” suggests that the need
for “greater support for practices, particularly
smaller ones,” is larger than previously suspected. David
Gans and associates queried nearly 35,000 medical group
practices to assess their current use of health information
technology and their plans to adopt EHR and information
systems. About 14% of group practices reported that
they had EHRs. They
found that adoption of EHRs is progressing slowly in
smaller practices and that the process of implementation
is more complex than expected. Nearly
all EHR systems in use are able to record basic information
in the patient’s medical record, the study finds.
Fewer systems, however, allow for managing results
of laboratory and imaging tests and referrals. Even
fewer EHR systems are currently used to prescribe drugs,
track immunizations, or track adherence to clinical
guidelines and protocols. The
top five barriers to implementation, reported by those
with and without EHRs, were related to costs and ease
of use. The authors also report that, “Barriers
such as lack of the ability to evaluate EHR proposals
and systems and inability to find systems that meet
the practices’ needs also received relatively
high scores.” When
the authors asked respondents what would help overcome
these barriers, they listed: “development of
standardized questions to ask EHR vendors, model RFPs
for EHRs and EHR contracts; information on integration
capabilities of EHR products with various practice
management systems; educational programs on how to
select and implement an EHR system; and certification
for EHR vendors.” The authors mention that QIOs
are providing this type of assistance through the DOQ-IT
program and suggest that assessment of its effectiveness
would be helpful. Read
the abstract at: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/24/5/1323  Home :: Inside AHQA :: For The Media :: Public Policy :: Advancing Quality :: Quality Connections :: SiteMap
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